Palladacycle-catalyzed phosphonation of aryl halides in neat water

An efficient and generally applicable protocol for the palladacycle-catalyzed arylation of diisopropyl H-phosphonate in water was developed. The remarkable features of this C–P bond-forming reaction include wide substrate scope including the inactive electron-rich and electron-neutral aryl chlorides, the weak inorganic base KF instead of strong bases such as KO^tBu or NaO^tBu for the activation of C–Cl bond, and the addition of isopropanol to avoid the decomposition of diisopropyl H-phosphonate.