Syntheses of Phosphonium Salts from Phosphines and Carbenium: Efficient CO2 Fixation and Phase-Transfer Catalysts

Abstract

A new library of phosphonium salts has been synthesized from the reaction of tris-(2,6-dimethoxyphenyl)carbenium with different phosphines. The resultant phosphoninum salts work as efficient phase-transfer catalysts for the alkylation of 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds. One compound, a bifunctional phosphonium salt prepared from tris-(2,6-dimethoxyphenyl)carbenium and an aminophosphine, was also found to be an efficient catalyst for CO2 fixation reactions with epoxides under mild conditions.