Abstract
A systematic study of various metal trifluoromethanesulfonates as efficient catalysts including the effects of solvents, reducing reagents, and temperature in the regioselective silane-reductive ring opening of 4,6-O-benzylidene acetals at O4 is described. The corresponding secondary alcohols were obtained in excellent yields under an optimized combination of 1 mol% Cu(OTf)2 and 2 equiv Me2EtSiH in CH3CN.