One Step Carbon‐Phosphor Bond Formation and N‐Alkylation of Tetrahydroisoquinolines under Silver Catalysis

Abstract Heterocycles with tetrahydroisoquinolines moiety are important biologically, and α‐aminophosphonates derivatives have unusual features in agrochemicals and medicines. In this paper, we combined these two parts to afford α‐aminophosphonates tetrahydroisoquinolines. A highly facile, one step direct carbon‐phosphor bond formation and N‐alkylation of tetrahydroisoquinolines was developed. It is a three‐component reaction of Nitrogen‐unprotected tetrahydroisoquinolines, aldehydes and trialkyl phosphites, which provides C1‐phosphonylated and N ‐alkylation of THIQs (Tetrahydroisoquinolines) with moderate to high yields. The mild reaction conditions were investigated to give a broad range of substrates. Under the optimized reaction condition at reaction temperature 120 o C, after heating 8 h the desired final product was given in 90% yield, which is a satisfied reaction result. The different substituted benzaldehydes and THIQs were investigated in detail and proved to be broad. The proposed mechanism was also showed.