;Aldehydes and ketones
Polymeric hydrosilanes, such as polymethylhydrosiloxane (PHMS), may be employed to facilitate separation of the reduced products from silicon-containing byproducts.
Enantioselective reductions of ketones may be accomplished through the use of catalytic amounts of chiral transition metal complexes. In some cases, the transition metal simply serves as a Lewis acid that coordinates to the ketone oxygen; however, some metals (most notably copper) react with hydrosilanes to afford metal hydride intermediates, which act as the active reducing agent.
In the presence of rhodium catalyst 1 and rhodium trichloride, 2-phenylcyclohexanone is reduced with no diastereoselectivity but high enantioselectivity.
;Esters
Esters may be reduced to alcohols under conditions of nucleophilic activation with caesium or potassium fluoride.
Aldehydes undergo hydrosilylation in the presence of hydrosilanes and fluoride. The resulting silyl ethers can be hydrolyzed with 1 M hydrochloric acid. Optimal yields of the hydrosilylation are obtained when the reaction is carried out in very polar solvents.