Herein, a transition-metal-free diphosphination of polyfluoroarenes with diphenylphosphine is disclosed. In the presence of tBuOK, various sterically hindered diphosphine ligands and fluorinated diphosphine ligands could be prepared in good to high yields through the C–F cleavage of polyfluoroarenes. This base-promoted direct diphosphination of polyfluoroarenes exhibits high efficiency and broad substrate scope, providing a convenient way for the synthesis of diphosphine ligands.
Xiang et al. (Mon,) studied this question.