Triflic Acid/Silane Promoted Deoxygenative Transformation of Ketones via Carbocations

Deoxygenative transformation of ketones into value-added products often suffers from precious-metal-based catalysts or complicated operational conditions. Triflic acid and silane serve as a cooperative reductant to transform ketones via carbocations that undergo β-H elimination much faster than hydride transfer from silane to produce alkenes with high selectivity. Alternatively, the presence of indoles would incept the protonated ketones to generate carbocations, allowing access to Csp2–Csp3 bond formation with high reactivity and selectivity in "one pot".