Scope and limitations of the debenzylation conditions for aryl benzyl ether, which was developed during our synthetic studies on yatakemycin, were investigated. The chemoselective debenzylation proceeds at low temperature with a combination of BCl(3) and pentamethylbenzene as a cation scavenger in the presence of various functional groups.
Trichloroboron-promoted Deprotection of Phenolic Benzyl Ether Using Pentamethylbenzene as a Non Lewis-Basic Cation Scavenger