Triflic Acid Adsorbed on Silica Gel as an Efficient Catalyst for O-Isopropylidenation of Sugar Derivatives

Triflic acid immobilized on silica gel has been identified as an excellent catalyst for the chemoselective O-isopropylidenation of free sugars and functionalized carbohydrates with acetone.This method is simple and economic for large-scale synthesis together with good to excellent yield, low catalyst loading and non-aqueous workup procedure.Protection strategy is a very common tactic in multi-step synthesis of complex organic molecules such as modified oligosaccharides, glycopeptides and nucleosides.The efficient protection of hydroxyl group has become increasingly crucial especially in carbohydrate chemistry. 1 As far as hydroxyl group protection is