Mechanism of noncatalytic synthesis of tris(hydroxymethyl)phosphine. Nonempirical quantum-chemical approach

The gas-phase reaction of the synthesis of tris(hydroxymethyl)phosphine from phosphine and formaldehyde was studied using a calculation scheme based on the density functional theory with hybrid exchange-correlation functional B3LYP in the 6–311++G** basis. The reaction was shown to proceed with the participation of unstable intermediates containing three-membered ring. The transformation into final products includes opening of the three-membered ring and intramolecular proton transfer. The results can be useful at selecting catalysts and for explaining the mechanism of the catalytic reaction of tris(hydroxymethyl)phosphine synthesis.