Abstract
A facile, time‐saving procedure to protect phenols with tert‐butyldimethylsilyl chloride using imidazole as catalyst under solvent‐free conditions is described. Several phenolic compounds with different substitution patterns can be silylated in high yield with substantially reduced generation of residues, a present goal in organic synthesis.
Acknowledgment
We thank Luiz Fernando da Silva Junior and Dieter Weiß for a critical reading of the manuscript and FAPESP (00/06652‐0, 01/07477‐0) and CAPES for substantial financial support.