Resolution and stereochemistry of tert-butylphenylphosphinous acid-borane

A combined use of ephedrine and cinchonine as resolving agents enabled facile resolution of racemic tert-butylphenylphosphinous acid-borane (1) into the two enantiomers in ca. 31-32% yield each. The resolved 1 served as a model substrate to study stereoselective synthetic transformations of phosphinous acid-boranes yielding optically active phosphinite-borane, boranatophosphinous-sulfonic anhydride, secondary phosphine-borane, tertiary phosphine-borane, secondary phosphine oxide, and phosphinic halides. By the judicious choice of the reaction paths, either enantiomer of tert-butylphenylphosphine-borane and of tert-butylmethylphenylphosphine-borane could be stereoselectively obtained from a single enantiomer of 1.