Metalation of arylmethyl alkyl ethers

Arylmethyl alkyl ethers 1a-11 were metallated with n-BuLi or sec-BuLi in THF at different temperatures, affording alpha-alkoxy-substituted arylmethyllithium derivatives. At low temperature, the organometallics derived from methyl and isopropyl ethers are sufficiently stable to react with added electrophiles affording the expected products 4aa-4jb. On the contrary, under similar conditions, lithium derivatives of primary alkyl benzyl ethers rapidly decay to benzyl alcohol 3