Alkylation of Phenyl Phosphinic Acid

Abstract

Phosphinic acids have been used as intermediates in the preparation of unsymmetrical tertiary phosphine oxides,¹ including optically active oxides. These phosphinic acid derivatives are prepared by the Arbuzov rearrangement of a phosphonite,² which, in turn, usually comes from the corresponding phosphine dichloride. This route to phosphinic acid works well but involves exceptionally malodorus, air sensitive, hydrolytically unstable intermediates. We wish to report a simple method to prepare phenylphosphinic acids which utilizes odorless, stable solid species.