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Concept
Silylation
Summary
Silylation is the introduction of one or more (usually) substituted silyl groups (R3Si) to a molecule. Silylations are core methods for production of organosilicon chemistry. Silanization involves similar methods but usually refers to attachment of silyl groups to solids.
Alcohols, carboxylic acids, amines, thiols, and phosphates can be silylated. The process involves the replacement of a proton or an anion with a trialkylsilyl group, typically trimethylsilyl (-SiMe3), as illustrated by the synthesis of a trimethylsilyl ethers from alcohols and trimethylsilyl chloride (Me = CH3):
Generally a base is employed to absorb the HCl coproduct.
Bis(trimethylsilyl)acetamide ("BSA", Me3SiNC(OSiMe3)Me is an efficient silylation agent. The reaction of BSA with alcohols gives the corresponding trimethylsilyl ether, together with acetamide as a byproduct (Me = CH3):
Silylation has two main uses: manipulation of functional groups and preparation of samples for analysis.
Often silylation is employed to protect OH and NH groups. The derivatives, silyl ethers and silyl amides, are resilient toward many reagents that would attack their precursors. The other main role of silylation is to trap silyl enol ethers, which represent a reactive tautomer of many carbonyl compounds.
The introduction of a silyl group(s) gives derivatives of enhanced volatility, making the derivatives suitable for analysis by gas chromatography and electron-impact mass spectrometry (EI-MS). For EI-MS, the silyl derivatives give more favorable diagnostic fragmentation patterns of use in structure investigations, or characteristic ions of use in trace analyses employing selected ion monitoring and related techniques.
Desilylation is the reverse of silylation: the silyl group is exchanged for a proton. Various fluoride salts (e.g. sodium, potassium, tetra-n-butylammonium fluorides) are popular for this purpose.
ROSiMe3 + F− + H2O → ROH + FSiMe3 + OH−
Transition metal silyl complexes
Coordination complexes with silyl ligands are well known.
Official source
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