Tris silane with acyl chlorides

The low ionic character of the aluminium-silicon bond has been cleverly utilized to develop a very mild, general and effective synthesis of acyl silanes, successful for aliphatic, aromatic, heteroaromatic, a-aUcoxy, a-amino and even a-chiral and a-cyclopropyl acyl sUanes. Acyl chlorides are treated with lithium tetrakis(trimethylsilyl)aluminium or lithium methyl tris(trimethylsilyl) aluminium in the presence of copper(I) cyanide as catalyst to give the acyl silanes in excellent yields after work-up. Later improvements include the use of 2-pyridinethiolesters in place of acyl halides, allowing preparation of acyl silanes in just a few minutes in very high yields indeed (Scheme 9) °, and the use of bis(dimethylphenylsilyl) copper lithium and a dimethylphenylsilyl zinc cuprate species as nucleophiles. 

One general method for acyl silane synthesis particularly successful for a-cyclopropyl examples (and even an a-cyclobutyl example) involves treatment of acid chlorides with lithium tetrakis(trimethylsilyl) aluminum or lithium methyl tris(trimethylsilyl) aluminium and cuprous cyanide (vide supra, Section III.A.3)77. For example, cyclopropyl acyl silane (23) was obtained in 89% yield by this process. Improved procedures use lithium t-butyldimethylsilyl cuprate78 and a dimethylphenylsilyl zinc cuprate species79,80 as reagents. 

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