“…15b We previously reported reactions in which proazaphosphatranes can activate silicon functionalities, 17-23 as for example in the silylation of alcohols using tert-butyldimethylsilyl chloride, 17,18 the synthesis of cyanohydrins via the addition of a trialkylsilylcyanide to carbonyl compounds, 19,20 the desilylation of TBDMS ethers, 21 and the nucleophilic aromatic substitution of aryl fluorides with aryl silylethers. 22,23 Because proazaphosphatranes can activate silicon functional groups [17][18][19][20][21][22][23] in addition to functioning as strong Lewis bases, 15,16 it occurred to us that in view of the paucity of reports in which the catalytic activation of TMS-dithiane for carbonyl umpolung 13,14 has been utilized, proazaphosphatranes might function well in such reactions. Here we report the use of a proazaphosphatrane as an efficient catalyst for 1,3-dithiane addition to the carbonyl of aldehydes as shown in Scheme 1.…”