Lithium hexamethyl disilazide LiHMDS

Mukaiyama found that Lewis acids can induce silyl enol ethers to attack carbonyl compounds, producing aldol-like products.22 The reaction proceeds usually at -78 °C without selfcondensation and other Lewis acids such as TiCl4 or SnCI4 are commonly used. The requisite silyl enol ether 27 was prepared by treatment of ketone 13 with lithium hexamethyl disilazide (LiHMDS) and trapping the kinetic enolate with chlorotrimethylsilane. When the silyl enol ether 27 was mixed with aldehyde 14 in the presence of BF3-OEt2 a condensation occurred via transition state 28 to produce the product 29 with loss of chlorotrimethylsilane. The induced stereochemistry in Mukaiyama reactions using methylketones and a, -chiral aldehydes as substrates... 

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