Phosphites Add Across Double Bonds

Abstract

From the ACS meeting Chemists in Japan have developed a technique for the catalytic addition of hydrogen-phosphorus bonds (hydrophosphorylation) to olefins and conjugated dienes. Their achievement makes possible the convenient production of alkanephosphonic acid derivatives for potential use as synthetic intermediates, flame retardants, herbicides, chiral ligands (for asymmetric synthetic catalysts), and extraction media (to treat actinide nuclear waste). Hydrophosphorylation thus joins hydroboration and hydrosilylation as a means of forming bonds from carbon to other elements. The work was carried out by postdoctoral fellow Farzad Mirzaei, organic chemistry department chairman Masato Tanaka, senior research chemist Li-Biao Han, and postdoctoral fellow Chang-Qiu Zhao at the National Institute of Materials & Chemical Research, Tsukuba, Japan. Mirzaei reported the group's progress in a presentation to the Division of Organic Chemistry. The researchers find that success depends on the use of the cyclic ester...