Novel method for efficient aerobic oxidation of silyl ethers to carbonyl compounds catalyzed with N-hydroxyphthalimide (NHPI) and lipophilic Co(II) complexes.

In this work, a new method for highly efficient and selective oxidative deprotection of a variety of structurally diverse trimethylsilyl (TMS) and tert-butyldimethylsilyl (TBS) ethers using molecular oxygen in the presence of N-hydroxyphthalimide (NHPI) and various types of Co(II) complexes is reported. As a result of the relatively neutral reaction medium, acid-sensitive functional groups such as phenolic TBS ethers survived intact under the presented reaction conditions.