218
M. Moghadam et al. / Polyhedron 29 (2010) 212–219
Table 4 (continued)
Row
5c
ROH
Silyl ether
Time (min)
1
Yield (%)b
100
CH2OH
OH
CH2OSiMe3
100
OSiMe3
a
Reaction conditions for a binary mixture: 1 mmol of each alcohol or phenol, HMDS (0.5 mmol), catalyst (1 mol%), CH3CN (1 mL).
GC yield.
1 mmol of HMDS was used.
b
c
porphyrins, it is clear that introducing of BF4 instead of Cl has in-
3.2. Reusability of catalyst
creased the electron deficiency of [SnIV(TPP)(BF4)2] which in turn
increases its catalytic activity.
The reusability of the catalyst was checked using multiple sily-
lation of 4-chlorobenzylalcohol with HMDS. At the end of the reac-
tion, the solvent was evaporated and n-hexane was added. The
catalyst was filtered and used in the next run. The results showed
that after reusing the catalyst for several times (four consecutive
runs were checked), no change was observed in its catalytic
activity.
The optimized conditions which obtained for silylation of 4-
benzyl alcohol were alcohol, HMDS and catalyst in a molar ratio
of 100:50:1. Under the optimized reaction conditions, a wide vari-
ety of alcohols were converted completely to their corresponding
silyl ethers. The obtained results for silylation of different primary,
secondary (including aliphatic and aromatic alcohols) and tertiary
alcohols showed that the reaction was immediately completed for
all alcohols at room temperature and no alcohol was detected by
TLC or GC (Table 2). These results showed that the nature of sub-
stituents in benzylic alcohols (electron-withdrawing or electron-
releasing) has no significant effect on the yields of silyl ethers.
Blank experiments in the absence of catalyst showed that only
small amounts of the corresponding silyl ethers were produced.
The high catalytic activity of this catalyst in the silylation of
alcohols, prompted us to investigate its ability in the silylation of
phenols. In this manner, different phenols were subjected to silyla-
tion with HMDS. The reaction conditions were as described for
alcohols. These results (Table 3) showed that all reactions were
completed in 1–3 min for all phenols and the desired silyl ethers
were obtained in excellent yields at room temperature. The silyla-
tion of polyhydroxybenzenes such as hydroquinone, pyrocatechol,
resorcinol and pyrogallol was also performed. The results showed
that all hydroxyl groups were silylated and the desired poly(tri-
methylsilyl ether) were obtained in excellent yields (Table 3, en-
tries 5–8).
During the reactions the fast evolution of ammonia gas was ob-
served (the evolution of NH3 was tested by Nessler’s test). On this
basis, a probable mechanism has been shown in Scheme 2. In this
mechanism, the Lewis acid–base interaction between porphyrin
tetrafluoroborate and nitrogen in HMDS polarizes the N–Si bond
of HMDS and a reactive silylating agent (1) is produced, which
effectively silylates the hydroxyl compounds.
The selectivity of this method was also investigated. As shown
in Table 4, primary alcohols were completely converted to the cor-
responding silyl ether in the presence of a secondary or tertiary
alcohols or phenols (Table 4, entries 1, 2 and 4). Also, in a binary
mixture of benzyl alcohol and 1-octanol, the benzyl alcohol was
converted to the corresponding silyl ether in 88% yield, while only
12% of the corresponding silyl ether was observed for the aliphatic
alcohol (Table 4, entry 3). It seems that the higher reactivity of pri-
mary in comparison with secondary and tertiary alcohols is due to
the less steric hindrance of primary alcohols for attacking to sily-
lating agent (1). Selective trimethylsilylation of alcohols in the
presence of phenols is attributed to higher nucleophilicity of alco-
hols. Note that these results have been obtained in the presence of
0.5 mmol of HMDS. When, 1 mmol of HMDS was used both sub-
strates were converted completely to their corresponding TMS-
ethers.
4. Conclusion
In this paper, another application of electron deficient
tin(IV)tetraphenylporphyrinato
tetrafluoroborate,
[SnIV(TPP)-
(BF4)2], which is a stable Sn(IV) compound, is reported. This cata-
lyst was successfully used for rapid, efficient and chemoselective
silylation of primary, secondary and tertiary alcohols and phenols
with 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS). Short reaction
times, excellent yields, easy work-up and stability and reusability
of the catalyst are noteworthy advantages of this method.
Acknowledgement
We are thankful to the Center of Excellence of Chemistry of Uni-
versity of Isfahan (CECUI)) for financial support of this work.
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