Diverse Alkyl-Silyl Cross-Coupling via Homolysis of Unactivated C(sp)-O Bonds with the Cooperation of Gold Nanoparticles and Amphoteric Zirconium Oxides.

Since C(sp)-O bonds are a ubiquitous chemical motif in both natural and artificial organic molecules, the universal transformation of C(sp)-O bonds will be a key technology for achieving carbon neutrality. We report herein that gold nanoparticles supported on amphoteric metal oxides, namely, ZrO, efficiently generated alkyl radicals via homolysis of unactivated C(sp)-O bonds, which consequently promoted C(sp)-Si bond formation to give diverse organosilicon compounds. A wide array of esters and ethers, which are either commercially available or easily synthesized from alcohols participated in the heterogeneous gold-catalyzed silylation by disilanes to give diverse alkyl-, allyl-, benzyl-, and allenyl silanes in high yields.