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.

Disale S., Kale S., Abraham G., Kahandal S., Sawarkar A. N., Gawande M. B.: ”A Sustainable and Efficient Synthesis of Benzyl Phosphonates Using PEG/KI Catalytic System”, Frontiers in Chemistry 4 (2016) (UNSP35), doi: 10.3389/fchem.2016.00035.