Direct and chlorine-free synthesis of phosphafluorenes or their oxides from white phosphorus

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

The known methods for the preparation of acylphosphine oxides and polyfluorobenzene-substituted triarylphosphines need to utilize PCl3, while the chlorine-free methods are not reported. In this work, we report a chlorine-free method by one-pot three-component reaction of white phosphorus (P4), dilithio reagents, and acyl chlorines or polyfluorobenzenes for the synthesis of biphenyl-based acylphosphine oxides and phosphines. This reaction is green and environmentally friendly compared with the traditional method, because it avoids the use of Cl2 and the discharge of a large amount of waste gas and waste acid. These two products have potential applications as photoinitiators in photopolymerization or as organophosphorus ligands in catalytic reactions.