Progress in the Atherton-Todd reaction and its stereochemical mechanism

Abstract

In this review, we summarize the literatures in the latest decades on the Atherton-Todd reaction of the tetracoordinated and pentacoordinated phosphorus compounds containing P-H bond. Especially, the review focuses on the development of the stereochemical mechanism of the Atherton-Todd reaction. Although the reaction mechanism has been investigated for decades after the discovery of the reaction, the earlier studies mainly concentrated on the reaction intermediate. Up to the past dozen years, the stereochemical mechanism of the Atherton-Todd reaction was studied in detail. However, up to now, there is few review and introduction to the stereochemical mechanism of the Atherton- Todd reaction. We hope this article could compensate for this limitation, and it not only summarizes the general Atherton-Todd reaction, but also introduces the recent research results on the stereochemical mechanism. It is considered that the further investigation on the stereochemical mechanism of the Atherton-Todd reaction will be helpful to design and synthesize the novel tetracoordinated or pentacoordinated compounds with phosphorus chiral centers.