1,2-Bis(dialkylphosphino)ethanes are readily prepared from the parent phosphine oxides, via a novel sodium aluminium hydride/sodium hydride reduction protocol of intermediate chlorophosphonium chlorides. This approach is amenable to multi-gram syntheses, utilises readily available and inexpensive reagents, and benefits from a facile non-aqueous work-up in the final reductive step.
Keywords: aluminium; hydrides; phosphane ligands; reduction; synthetic methods.