Chemoselective and Practical Deprotection of Alkyl Trialkylsilyl Ethers in the Presence of Aryl Trialkylsilyl Ethers by a Catalytic Amount of Sc(OTf)₃

Abstract

Treatment of alkyl trialkylsilyl ethers with 0.5 mol% of Sc(OTf)3 combined with 5 equivalents of water in acetonitrile provides an efficient and practical method for the deprotection of silyl ethers. Alcoholic trialkylsilyl ethers have been cleaved selectively in the presence of phenolic trialkylsilyl ethers.