Synlett 2004(9): 1598-1600  
DOI: 10.1055/s-2004-829072
LETTER
© Georg Thieme Verlag Stuttgart · New York

Phenolic N-Oxide as a Highly Efficient Organocatalyst for Cyanosilylation of Ketones

Yan Lia, Bin Hea, Xiaoming Feng*a,b, Guolin Zhangc
a Key Laboratory of Green Chemistry & Technology (Sichuan University), Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, P. R. China
Fax: +86(28)85418249; e-Mail: xmfeng@scu.edu.cn;
b State Key Laboratory of Applied Organic Chemistry, Lanzhou 730000, P. R. China
c Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, P. R. China
Further Information

Publication History

Received 26 March 2004
Publication Date:
29 June 2004 (online)

Abstract

The use of an inexpensive, easy to handle and readily available chemical, 5 mol% phenolic N-oxide, alone as a catalyst for cyanosilylation of ketones gave the corresponding products in 78-99% yield with reaction times of 0.5-16 hours.

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General Procedure for Cyanosilylation of Ketones: To a mixture of ketone (0.5 mmol) and phenolic N-oxide (4.2 mg, 0.025 mmol) in Et2O (0.5 mL) was added trimethylsilyl cyanide (83 µL, 1.2 equiv) at r.t. The reaction was monitored by TLC, and after the reaction period described in Table [2] , the reaction mixture was concentrated under reduced pressure and purified by silica gel column chromatography with Et2O-petroleum ether (1:100, v/v) to give the pure product.