Phosphate esters as “tunable” reagents in organic synthesis

The essential role phosphates have in biochemistry has no parallel in man-made chemistry, where the poor reactivity of these esters towards nucleophilic substitution makes more reactive substrates such as halides and sulfonates preferred. Nevertheless, phosphates are acquiring an increasing role in organic synthesis as long as new activation modes become available. These include metal catalysis and photochemistry (the latter effective with benzyl and aryl derivatives) that may turn the present limitation into a promising opportunity by devising convenient tunable reactions.