One-Pot, Three-Component Approach to Diarylmethylphosphonates: A Direct Entry to Polycyclic Aromatic Systems.

A new type of three-component reaction was developed consisting of aldehydes, electron-rich (hetero)arenes, and trialkyl phosphite, which provided facile access to a wide range of diarylmethylphosphonates under mild reaction conditions. Simple one- or two-step synthetic manipulation of the resulting compounds enabled us to reach several polycyclic (hetero)aromatic systems efficiently.