Iron(III) trifluoroacetate [Fe(F3CCO2)3] as an easily available, non-hygroscopic, non-corrosive, highly stable and a reusable Lewis Acid catalyst:: Efficient O-silylation of α-hydroxyphosphonates, alcohols and phenols by hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS) under solvent-free conditions

O-Silylation of hydroxyl groups of alpha-hydroxyphosphonates, primary, secondary tertiary-alcohols and phenols with HMDS was achieved in high to excellent yields using iron(III) trifluoroacetate [ Fe( F3CCO2)(3)] as an easily available and a cost effective, non-hygroscopic, non-corrosive, highly stable and an efficient catalyst under solvent-free conditions. As a typical reaction, we have scaled up silylation of diphenyl methanol to 20 mmol of the substrate in order to show that the catalyst is quite effective for scaled up operation. The catalyst was easily isolated by simple filtration and recycled for silylation of diphenyl methanol for several runs without loosing its catalytic activity. (c) 2008 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.