Rapid and highly efficient trimethylsilylation of alcohols and phenols with hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS) catalyzed by reusable zirconyl triflate, [ZrO(OTf)2]

In this paper, rapid and efficient trimethylsilylation of alcohols and phenols with hexamethyldisilazane in the presence of catalytic amounts of ZrO(OTf)2 is reported. Primary, secondary and tertiary alcohols as well as phenols were efficiently converted to their corresponding TMS ethers in short reaction times at room temperature. It is noteworthy that this method can be used for chemoselective silylation of primary alcohols in the presence of secondary and tertiary alcohols and phenols.