An Improved Procedure for Hydrosilation of α,β-Unsaturated Esters and an Extension to Conjugated Diene Esters

Abstract

Treatment of α,β-unsaturated esters with triethylsilane in benzene in the presence of a catalytic amount of tris(triphenylphosphine)rhodium chloride at room temperature followed by chromatography on silica gel gave rise to the corresponding saturated esters. Under similar conditions, fully conjugated diene esters were reduced to the dihydrolevel to give β,γ- or γ,δ-unsaturated esters depending upon the substitution pattern of the starting substrate.