Scandium trifiate

Scandium trifiate was found to be an effective catalyst for the aldol reactions of silyl enol ethers with aldehydes in aqueous solvent/micellar systems (205). While the reactions proceeded sluggishly in water, remarkable enhancement of the reactivity was observed in the presence of a small amount of a surfactant (206). In related asymmetric version, scandium trifiate (Sc(OTf)3) catalyzed asymmetric aldol of formaldehyde (hydroxymethylation) could be conducted with highly enantioselectively in the presence of chiral bipyridine based ligand (Scheme 53) (207). A significant progress was also made by Feng and co-workers recently a C-2-symmetric iV,iV -dioxide-Sc(III) complex has been developed to asymmetric catalytic aldol reaction of a-ketoesters and diazoacetate... 

Lanthanides as Catalysts Catalytic amounts of scandium trifiate (Sc(OTf)3) was found to greatly increase the rate of oxidation of sulfides by 60% H2O2 (Table 8.3) [41]. 

Preparative Methods scandium triflate is commercially available. On the other hand, it can also be prepared from the corresponding oxide (SC2O3) and aqueous trifluoromethane-sulfonic acid (TfOH). After filtration and concentration of the clear aqueous solution in vacuo, the resulting hydrated salt is dried in vacuo (<1 mmHg) at 200 °C for 40 h to afford the anhydrous trifiate, which is stored over P2O5. 

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