Tritylation of Alcohols under Mild Conditions without Using Silver Salts.

Secondary alcohols were conveniently tritylated under mild conditions within a short running time with tritylium trifluoroacetate generated in situ from trityl alcohols and trifluoroacetic anhydride. No expensive silver salts were needed for the reactions. Four secondary alcohols were tritylated with both mono- and dimethoxy trityl alcohols giving good to excellent isolated yields. The reaction was also tested on four nucleoside derivatives that have primary alcohols. Satisfactory results were also obtained.