Aryl phosphonate esters are valuable moieties for the pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries. Accessing such compounds from affordable and abundant phosphite reagents and a wide range of aromatic building blocks under metal-free, visible light-induced reaction conditions would represent a desirable technology. Herein, we present an efficient and mild methodology for the synthesis of aromatic phosphonate esters in good to excellent yields using DBU and phenothiazine as a photoredox catalyst.

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... The reaction exhibits wide functional group compatibility enabling the transformation in presence of ketone, amide, ester, amine, and alcohol moieties. Importantly, the reaction proceeds using a green solvent mixture primarily composed of water, thus lowering the environmental footprint of this transformation compared to current methods.