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A combined use of ephedrine and cinchonine as resolving agents enabled facile resolution of racemic tert-butylphenylphosphinous acid-borane (1) into the two enantiomers in ca. 31-32% yield each. The resolved 1 served as a model substrate to study stereoselective synthetic transformations of phosphinous acid-boranes yielding optically active phosphinite-borane, boranatophosphinous-sulfonic anhydride, secondary phosphine-borane, tertiary phosphine-borane, secondary phosphine oxide, and phosphinic halides. By the judicious choice of the reaction paths, either enantiomer of tert-butylphenylphosphine-borane and of tert-butylmethylphenylphosphine-borane could be stereoselectively obtained from a single enantiomer of 1.

A direct stereoselective conversion of tertiary hydroxyalkylphosphine oxides to the corresponding tertiary hydroxyalkylphosphine-boranes involving facile reduction of the P═O bond by BH3 under mild conditions has been developed. The unprecedented facility of reduction of the strong P═O bond by BH3, a mild reducing agent, has been achieved through an intramolecular P═O···B complexation directed by proximal α- or β-hydroxy groups present in the phosphine oxide structures. As established by two chemical correlations, the developed transformation of hydroxyalkylphosphine oxides into hydroxyalkylphosphine-boranes takes place with complete inversion of configuration at P.

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