Enantioconvergent construction of stereogenic silicon via Lewis base-catalyzed dynamic kinetic silyletherification of racemic chlorosilanes

Nat Commun. 2023 Aug 14;14(1):4900. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-40558-6.

Abstract

Organosilanes possessing an enantioenriched stereogenic silicon center are important in many branches of chemistry, yet they remain challenging to synthesize in a practical and scalable way. Here we report a dynamic kinetic silyletherification process of racemic chlorosilanes with (S)-lactates using 4-aminopyridine as a Lewis base catalyst. This enantioconvergent approach asymmetrically constructs the stereogenic silicon center in a different manner from traditional resolution or desymmetrization. A range of silylethers have been prepared with high diastereoselectivity on up to 10 g-scale, allowing the practical synthesis of diverse enantioenriched organosilane analogs.