A Universally Applicable Methodology for the Gram-Scale Synthesis of Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Phosphines

Although organophosphine syntheses have been known for the better part of a century, the synthesis of phosphines still represents an arduous task for even veteran synthetic chemists. Phosphines as a class of compounds vary greatly in their air sensitivity, and the misconception that it is trivial or even easy for a novice chemist to attempt a seemingly straightforward synthesis can have disastrous results. To simplify the task, we have previously developed a methodology that uses benchtop intermediates to access a wide variety of phosphine oxides (an immediate precursor to phosphines). This synthetic approach saves the air-free handling until the last step (reduction to and isolation of the phosphine). Presented herein is a complete general procedure for the facile reduction of phosphonates, phosphinates, and phosphine oxides to primary, secondary, and tertiary phosphines using aluminum hydride reducing agents. The electrophilic reducing agents (iBu)2AlH and AlH3 were determined to be vastly superior to LiAlH4 for reduction selectivity and reactivity. Notably, it was determined that AlH3 is capable of reducing the exceptionally resistant tricyclohexylphosphine oxide, even though LiAlH4 and (iBu)2AlH were not. Using this new procedure, gram-scale reactions to synthesize a representative range of primary, secondary, and tertiary phosphines (including volatile phosphines) were achieved reproducibly with excellent yields and unmatched purity without the need for a purification step.