Alkoxide ligands, conjugate addition

Hydrosilylations by complexed CuH have been applied to several substrate types (Scheme 1-17). As illustrated by the following examples, the stereochemical outcomes from both 1,2-additions (to aryl ketones and aryl imines ) and 1,4-conjugate additions (cyclic ketones, P-aryl and/or P-silyl enoates, and unsaturated lactones) can be controlled by these ligand-accelerated reactions. One of the key tricks to this chemistry is to take advantage of the tolerance of CuH complexes to alcohols and water.In fact, several methods rely on the presence of a bulky alcohol (e.g., t-BuOH) to significantly enhance reaction rates. It takes relatively little added alcohol (volume-wise) to accelerate the hydrosilylation, usually on the order of 1-3 equivalents. The role of this additive is usually ascribed to the more rapid quenching of an intermediate copper alkoxide or enolate, which necessarily generates a copper alkoxide, an ideal precursor to rapid reformation of CuH in the presence of excess silane. Thus, the rate increase is presumably due to... 

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