A General and Selective Synthesis of Methylmonochlorosilanes from Di-, Tri-, and Tetrachlorosilanes.

Direct catalytic transformation of chlorosilanes into organosilicon compounds remains challenging due to difficulty in cleaving the strong Si-Cl bond(s). We herein report the palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reaction of chlorosilanes with organoaluminum reagents. A combination of [Pd(C3H5)Cl]2 and DavePhos ligand catalyzed the selective methylation of various dichlorosilanes 1, trichlorosilanes 5, and tetrachlorosilane 6 to give the corresponding monochlorosilanes.