Arylation and Oxidative Esterification of Aldehydes with Siloxanes

Significance

This paper describes two novel interesting reactions of aryltrialkoxysilanes: nucleophilic 1,2-addition of the aryl moiety to aldehydes and the oxidation of aldehydes by alkoxysilanes to the corresponding esters, promoted by palladium-phosphinous acid catalytic species. Since aryltrimethoxysilanes are stable, easy-to-handle compounds, the first reaction can serve as a convenient synthetic way to diarylcarbinols. In the second process, cheap Si(OMe)₄ can be used as the oxidant, which makes this method very attractive for the direct transformation of aldehydes into the corresponding methyl esters.