Reductive Desilanolation as a Route to Benzonitriles. An Application to a Concise Synthesis of the Aromatic Sector of Calicheamicin.

Article abstract of DOI:10.1016/0040-4039(94)80006-5

The TMS-cyanohydrins of quinones undergo reductive desilanolation in the presence of samarium iodide to form hydroxybenzonitriles.Benzoquinone 1 was converted to the hexasubstituted aromatic fragment of calicheamicin 4 by this method.