Base-catalyzed hydrosilylation of ketones and esters and insight into the mechanism.

Simple bases (KOtBu, KOH) catalyze the silane-promoted reduction of ketones and esters to alcohols and of aldimines to amines. The inexpensive silane PMHS (polymethylhydrosiloxane) can be used as the reducing reagent. Double and triple bonds, as well as nitro- and cyano-groups are tolerated. Careful dosing of the silane allows for chemoselective reduction of a more reactive group in the presence of a less reactive group (for example, aldehyde reduction in the presence of ketone/ketone reduction in the presence of ester group). Mechanistic studies showed that addition of base to silanes leads to silicate species, which are the acting reducing agents. Under basic conditions, hydrosiloxanes (tetramethyldisiloxane, TMDS; PMHS) convert into simple silanes (H2 SiMe2 , H3 SiMe), making this a practical method to generate these challenging silanes.