Facile O-silylation of tertiary alcohols in the presence of Mg-metal

Treatment of aliphatic alcohols with trimethylsilyl chloride (TMSCl) in N,N -dimethylformamide (DMF) containing Mg-turning at room temperature brought about facile and efficient O-silylation to give the corresponding trimethyl silyl ethers in good to excellent yields. This method can be also available for sterically hindered tert-alcohols and alcohols having a variety of sub stituents which may be labile under the basic conditions used in the conven tional O-silylation.