Electron-rich triarylphosphines as nucleophilic catalysts for oxa-Michael reactions

• Susanne M. Fischer,
• Simon Renner,
• A. Daniel Boese and
• Christian Slugovc

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2021, 17, 1689–1697, doi:10.3762/bjoc.17.117

• masses of about 1200 g/mol at room temperature are accessible. Polymerizations carried out at 80 °C resulted in macromolecules containing a considerable share of Rauhut–Currier-type repeat units and consequently lower molar masses were obtained. Keywords: Michael acceptor affinity; Michael addition

• chemistry; organocatalysis; phosphine; solvent-free synthesis; Introduction Phosphines are potent nucleophiles that are used as catalysts in many reactions, like Rauhut–Currier, Morita–Baylis–Hillman or Michael reactions [1][2][3]. The first step of these reactions is a conjugate addition of the phosphine