Rice husk: Introduction of a green, cheap and reusable catalyst for the protection of alcohols, phenols, amines and thiols

A mild, efficient and eco-friendly protocol for the chemoselective protection of benzylic and primary and less hindered secondary aliphatic alcohols and phenols as trimethylsilyl ethers and different types of amines as N-tert-butylcarbamates is developed using rice husk (RiH) as the catalyst. This reagent is also able to catalyze the acetylation of alcohols, phenols, thiols and amines with acetic anhydride. Easy work-up, relatively short reaction times, excellent yields and low cost, availability and reusability of the catalyst are the striking features of this methodology, which can be considered to be one of the best and general methods for the protection of alcohols, phenols, thiols and amines. In addition, the use of a green reagent in the above-mentioned reactions results in a reduction of environmental pollution and of the cost of the applied methods.