Air- and moisture-stable secondary phosphine oxides as preligands in catalysis

The application of secondary phosphine oxides to catalysis is reviewed. A survey of the literature up to summer 2005 is provided, covering the use of these air- and moisture-stable preligands in transformations catalyzed by transition-metal complexes and their use as precatalysts in nucleophilic catalysis. 1 Introduction 2 Syntheses of Phosphine Oxides and Their Metal Complexes Relevant to Catalysis 3 Transition-Metal-Catalyzed Reactions 3.1 Carbon-Substituted Secondary Phosphine Oxides 3.2 Heteroatom-Substituted Secondary Phosphine Oxides 3.3 Asymmetric Transition-Metal-Catalyzed Reactions 4 Nucleophilic Catalysis 5 Summary and Outlook.