Atherton–Todd reaction

Overview

The Atherton-Todd reaction is a name reaction in organic chemistry, which goes back to the British chemists F. R. Atherton, H. T. Openshaw and A. R. Todd. These described the reaction for the first time in 1945 as a method of converting dialkyl phosphites into dialkyl chlorophosphates. The dialkyl chlorophosphates formed are often too reactive to be isolated, though. For this reason, the synthesis of phosphates or phosphoramidates can follow the Atherton-Todd reaction in the presence of alcohols or amines. The following equation gives an overview over the Atherton-Todd reaction using the reactant dimethyl phosphite as an example:

Actions

• This entry doesn't have stoichiometric equivalents on file yet — the Reaction Scale Calculator needs at least one participant tagged with an equivalents value.
• Mechanism / source ↗