Base-Catalyzed Hydrosilylation of Nitriles to Amines and Esters to Alcohols

Base-catalyzed hydrosilylation of nitriles to amines and esters to silylated alcohols is reported. This protocol tolerates electron-rich and electron-neutral olefins and works in the presence of basic functional groups (e. g. tertiary amines) but fails for acidic substrates, such as phenols and NH anilines. This catalytic system does not tolerate carbonyl groups, such as aldehydes, ketones, esters and carbamides, which are reduced to corresponding alcohols and amines. With the exact amount of silane, esters can be selectively reduced in the presence of nitriles, but the selectivity drops for the pairs ester/carboxamide and carboxamide/nitrile. Through competition experiments, the following preference in functional group reactivity was determined: ester > carboxamide > nitrile.