Palladium-catalyzed dehydrogenative coupling of terminal alkynes with secondary phosphine oxides

The dehydrogenative coupling of terminal alkynes with secondary phosphine oxides is developed. In the presence of a silver additive, palladium acetate could efficiently catalyze the dehydrocoupling of secondary phosphine oxides with a variety of terminal alkynes to produce the corresponding alkynylphosphine oxides in high yields. A reaction mechanism is proposed.