A sustainable and efficient synthesis of benzyl phosphonates using PEG/KI catalytic system

Abstract

An efficient and expedient protocol for the synthesis of benzyl phosphonates using KI/K2CO3 as a catalytic system and PEG-400 as benign solvent has been developed. The reaction proceeds smoothly at room temperature achieving excellent selectivity and yield of the corresponding products. The combination of PEG-400, KI, and K2CO3 in this reaction avoids the need of volatile/toxic organic solvents and reactive alkali metals or metal nanoparticles/hydrides. We believe that this benign combination (PEG-400 and KI) could be used for other related organic transformations.