A mild, efficient, and selective deprotection of tert-butyldimethylsilyl (TBDMS) ethers using dicationic ionic liquid as a catalyst

Selective deprotection of alkyl TBDMS ether in the presence of phenolic TBDMS ether using dicationic ionic liquid tetraEG(mim)₂]OMs]₂ as a homogeneous catalyst showed significant catalytic activity in methanol at ambient temperature to produce respective alcohol in excellent yield. The present environmentally benign catalytic system is found to be very convenient, fast, high yielding, and clean method for selective desilylation of alkyl silyl ethers even in the existence of other sensitive organic functional groups such as aldehyde, methoxy, and acetate were also achieved.