A facile, catalytic, and environmentally benign method for selective deprotection of tert-butyldimethylsilyl ether mediated by phosphomolybdic acid supported on silica gel.

An environmentally benign PMA supported on SiO(2) is found to be an efficient catalyst for the chemoselective deprotection of TBDMS ethers under very mild conditions. Various labile functional groups such as isopropylidene acetal, OTBDPS, OTHP, Oallyl, OBn, alkene, alkyne, OAc, OBz, N-Boc, N-Cbz, N-Fmoc, mesylate, and azide are found to be stable under the reaction conditions. This "truly catalytic" heterogeneous reaction does not require aqueous workup, and the supported catalyst and the solvent can be readily recovered and recycled.