Magnesium triflate [Mg(OTf)2] a highly stable, non-hygroscopic and a recyclable catalyst for the high yielding preparation of diethyl α-trimethylsilyloxyphosphonates from diethyl α-hydroxyphosphonates by HMDS under solventless conditions

A broad, adaptable, high yielding and convenient procedure for the easy conversion of various α-hydroxyphosphonates to α-trimethylsilyloxyphosphonates under mild conditions with HMDS in the presence of a catalytic amount of magnesium triflate as a highly stable and a non-hygroscopic recyclable catalyst in neat conditions is described. In order to show the general applicability of this method, we have also applied this procedure successfully for the silylation of ordinary alcohols and phenols.