A Literature Seminar by Mr. Roman Bashkurov from the Apeloig group on the topic of: Sustainable Synthesis of Phosphorus Chemicals
Dec 18th
Seminar Room
9:30
Mr. Roman Bashkurov from the Apeloig group
Phosphorus chemicals are a very important class of compounds with a wide range of
applications in both academia and industry. The current two industrial methods used for their
synthesis include: (a) the oxidation of white phosphorus (P4) with toxic Cl2 gas to generate
the highly corrosive PCl3 liquid, which is subsequently transformed into a variety of monophosphorus
compounds by reactions with suitable nucleophiles. (b) reaction of aqueous
NaOH with P4 to generate the highly toxic and pyrophoric PH3 gas, which is then employed
for the hydrophosphination of unsaturated organic substrates. Clearly, both methods suffer
from reliance on highly hazardous reagents, undesirable waste formation and multi-step
procedures. It is clear that more efficient, less hazardous, and environmentally friendly
methods for the synthesis of phosphorus chemicals are needed. My talk will give a general
introduction about the phosphorus element and its role in life and the chemical industry,
followed by presentation of several recent breakthroughs in more sustainable synthesis of
phosphorus chemicals.