A facile method for the rapid and selective deprotection of methoxymethyl (MOM) ethers

We describe a rapid and efficient method for selective deprotection of methoxymethyl (MOM) ethers using ZnBr2 and n-PrSH, which completely removed MOM from diverse MOM ethers of primary, secondary, and tertiary alcohols or phenol derivatives. The deprotection takes less than ten minutes with both high yield and selectivity in the presence of other protecting groups. In addition, the rapid deprotection of MOM ethers of tertiary hydroxyls in high yield with no epimerization allows MOM to be a suitable protecting group for tertiary alcohols.