Base-free dehydrogenative coupling of enolizable carbonyl compounds with silanes

Org Lett. 2012 Jun 1;14(11):2842-5. doi: 10.1021/ol301089r. Epub 2012 May 23.

Abstract

A dehydrogenative coupling between enolizable carbonyl compounds and equimolar amounts of triorganosilanes catalyzed by a tethered ruthenium complex with a Ru-S bond is reported. The complex is assumed to fulfill a dual role by activating the Si-H bond to release a silicon electrophile and by abstracting an α-proton from the intermediate silylcarboxonium ion, only liberating dihydrogen as the sole byproduct. Reaction rates are exceedingly high at room temperature with very low loadings of the ruthenium catalyst.