A high loading sulfonic acid-functionalized ordered nanoporous silica as an efficient and recyclable catalyst for chemoselective deprotection of tert-butyldimethylsilyl ethers

A high loading sulfonic acid-functionalized ordered nanoporous silica efficiently catalyzes the deprotection of a variety of alcoholic TBDMS (tert-butyldimethylsilyl)ethers in methanol. The catalyst shows high thermal stability (up to 240 °C) and can be recovered and reused for at least seven reaction cycles without loss of reactivity. This method can be used to deprotect TBDMS ethers of alcohols in the presence of TBDMS ethers of phenols.