Highly chemoselective metal-free reduction of phosphine oxides to phosphines.

Unprecedented chemoselective reductions of phosphine oxides to phosphines proceed smoothly in the presence of catalytic amounts of specific Brønsted acids. By utilizing inexpensive silanes, e.g., PMHS or (EtO)(2)MeSiH, other reducible functional groups such as ketones, aldehydes, olefins, nitriles, and esters are well-tolerated under optimized conditions.