Fragmentation of methyl hydrogen α-hydroxyiminophosphonates to monomeric methyl metaphosphate: Stereochemistry and mechanism

Jehoshua Katzhendler, Rafik Karaman, Dan Gibson, Eli Breuer*, Haim Leader

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

19 Scopus citations

Abstract

Methyl α-(hydroxyimino)benzylphosphonates [(E)-(2) and (Z)-(2)] undergo fragmentation in alcohols to benzonitrile and a (mixed) phosphodiester. Kinetic studies of the behaviour of (E)-(2) and (Z)-(2) in a series of alcohols indicate that (Z)-(2) undergoes acid catalysed isomerization to (E)-(2) which subsequently undergoes fragmentation via a concerted, dissociative bond cleavage to benzonitrile and monomeric methyl metaphosphate (7). The latter is trapped by the solvent in the second step of the reaction to give the final phosphodiester product.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)589-594
Number of pages6
JournalJournal of the Chemical Society, Perkin Transactions 2
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 1989

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