[sggwils2]

Can anyone shed any light on the mechanism for this reaction? BuLi will deprotonate at the tertiary centre first before reaction with PhCHO to give the phenyl alcohol. I am now confused as to what role the tert-BuLi plays as it is a sterically hindered strong base suggesting it would favour a second deprotonation followed by SN2 with the MeI but this yields the incorrect product as it seems the tert-BuLi acts as a nucleophile to give the di-substituted Ph/tert-Bu product before the SiMe3 is lost. Any help appreciated. 

[clarkstill]

I think steps 1-2 will lead to a Peterson Olefination¹, you can probably work from there...

[1] https://www.organic-chemistry.org/namedreactions/peterson-olefination.shtm

[sggwils2]

Noted, thank you. Does this seem a logical reaction mechanism?

[clarkstill]

That seems like a reasonable proposal given the reagents, but I doubt it'd work in real life - tBuLi is an abysmal nucleophile.

The closest thing I can find in the literature is this: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004040390078885X, but in that case the R-Li nucleophile is tethered so the reaction is intramolecular, and it definitely isn't as hindered as tBuLi.

[OrganicDan96]

tBuLi isn't as bad a nucleophile is you might expect, it apparently reacts via a single electron pathway unlike other alkyllithiums