ABSTRACT
This chapter offers an overview of developments in the formation of a phosphorus-carbon (P-C) bond, thereby affording functionalized diverse kinds of phosphonates, phosphine oxides and a-aminophosphonates of potential interest. Application of microwave irradiation in carrying out the Kabachnik–Fields reaction has appeared to be the most straightforward and effective protocol yielding the desired a-aminophosphonates in high yields under moderate conditions, and, in most cases, the synthesis under solvent-free microwave-assisted conditions is the method of choice. Access to aryl-/vinylphosphonates and related compounds was improved considerably when, in addition to the traditional synthetic methods, T. Hirao and co-workers introduced a Pd-catalyzed cross-coupling reaction of H-phosphonates with aryl and vinyl halides. As a part of the continuing development of various synthetically important reactions using microwave technique, both Hirao and M. I. Kabachnik–Fields reactions also have attained quite significant advancements so far. The Hirao reaction has become an important P-C bond forming strategy since its discovery about 35 years ago in the early 1980s.
