Recent advances in catalytic silylation of hydroxyl‐bearing compounds: A green technique for protection of alcohols using Si–O bond formations

The development of catalytic silylation of alcohols under ambient reaction conditions plays an important role in organic synthesis. New silyl groups and methods for their introduction and removal are constantly being developed and offer chemists a wider range of options. In recent years, silyl protecting groups have been given expanded roles beyond their traditional use of temporarily rendering inactive alcohols. As silyl ether can be further converted to the parent alcohols in acidic conditions, silylation of alcohols can be regarded as an alternative method for hydroxyl protection under ambient reaction conditions. Merging the silyl protection/deprotection of alcohols with such modern methodologies, as green chemistry and nanoscience, has added additional value to these temporary components of synthetic intermediates. This review describes the historical background of the trimethylsilyl ethers preparation from alcohols using catalytic complexes and also the transformation of trimethylsilyl ethers into alcohol‐containing compounds via deprecation techniques.