Iodine-promoted silylation of alcohols with silyl chlorides. Synthetic and mechanistic studies

An efficient silylating system for 1°, 2°, and 3° alcohols, consisting of a silyl chloride/N-methylimidazole/iodine, was developed. Synthetic and mechanistic aspects of this new reagent system, and particularly the role of iodine were investigated in detail using 1H NMR spectroscopy.