Microwave-assisted Hirao reaction: recent developments

Abstract

Organic molecules containing phosphorus, now, constitute a major branch of chemistry, and offer fascinating possibilities for their structural, synthetic, and mechanistic study as well as promising biological activities. Organophosphorus compounds find numerous potential applications in the areas of industrial, agricultural, and medicinal chemistry. Aryl- and vinyl-phosphonates are an important class of organophosphorus compounds with potential biological relevance. The Hirao reaction offers a way to access these compounds through phosphorus-carbon (P–C) cross-coupling of aryl and vinyl halides with O,O-dialkyl phosphites, and this reaction has attained a commendable development in many ways in regard to the diversity in the substrates, >P(O)H species, catalysts, and reaction conditions. The present article deals with such developments that occurred under the influence of microwave irradiation.