Visible-light-mediated phosphonylation reaction: formation of phosphonates from alkyl/arylhydrazines and trialkylphosphites using zinc phthalocyanine.

In this work, we developed a ligand- and base-free visible-light-mediated protocol for the photoredox syntheses of arylphosphonates and, for the first time, alkyl phosphonates. Zinc phthalocyanine-photocatalyzed Csp2–P and Csp3–P bond formations were efficiently achieved by reacting aryl/alkylhydrazines with trialkylphosphites in the presence of air serving as an abundant oxidant. The reaction conditions tolerated a wide variety of functional groups.