In pursuit of a more
sustainable production
of phosphorous acid (H
3
PO
3
), a versatile chemical
with phosphorus in the +3 oxidation state, we herein report that condensed
phosphates can be employed to phosphorylate hydride reagents under
solvent-free mechanochemical conditions to furnish phosphite (HPO
3
2–
). Using potassium hydride as the hydride
source, sodium trimetaphosphate (Na
3
P
3
O
9
), triphosphate (Na
5
P
3
O
10
), pyrophosphate (Na
4
P
2
O
7
), fluorophosphate
(Na
2
PO
3
F), and polyphosphate (“(NaPO
3
)
n
”) engendered phosphite
in optimized yields of 44, 58, 44, 84, and 55% based on total P content,
respectively. Formation of overreduced products including hypophosphite
(H
2
PO
2
–
) was identified as a competing process, and mechanistic investigations
revealed that hydride attack on in-situ-generated phosphorylated phosphite
species is a potent pathway for overreduction. The phosphite generated
from our method was easily isolated in the form of barium phosphite,
a useful intermediate for production of phosphorous acid. This method
circumvents the need to pass through white phosphorus (P
4
) as a high-energy intermediate and mitigates involvement of environmentally
hazardous chemicals. A bioproduced polyphosphate was found to be a
viable starting material for the production of phosphite. These results
demonstrate the possibility of accessing reduced phosphorus compounds
in a more sustainable manner and, more importantly, a means to close
the modern phosphorus cycle.