Rh soaked in polyionic gel: An effective catalyst for dehydrogenative silylation of ketones

A polyionic gel- soaked Rh catalyst allows the formation of synthetically useful diphenylsilyl ( DPS) enols under mild conditions. The reaction proceeds through dehydrogenative silylation of ketones, affording the kinetic silyl enol ether in good to excellent yields. The in situ formed DPS enols were directly involved, without purification, in one- pot aldol and Mannich condensations.