Cesium carbonate catalyzed chemoselective hydrosilylation of aldehydes and ketones under solvent-free conditions.

Cs2CO3 has been found to be an efficient and chemoselective catalyst for reduction of aldehydes and ketones to alcohols with one equivalent of Ph2SiH2 as the reductant under solvent-free conditions. Most of the aldehydes employed can be effectively hydrosilated quantitatively to give the corresponding silyl ethers in 2 h at room temperature, whereas the hydrosilylation of ketones proceeded smoothly at 80 °C. The catalyst system tolerates a number of functional groups including halogen, alkoxyl, olefin, ester, nitro, cyano, and heteroaromatic groups; the selective hydrosilylation of aldehydes in the presence of ketone can be effectively controlled by temperature; and hydrosilylation of α,β-unsaturated carbonyls resulted in the 1,2-addition products. The catalytic hydrosilylation of suitable dicarbonyls can be applied to the synthesis of poly(silyl ether)s with a high molecular weight and narrow molecular distribution.