A simplistic green and neat procedure was developed for the synthesis of arylmethyl and heteroaryl phosphonates or phosphinates by silica gel supported Lewis acid catalyst, CeCl3.7H2O-SiO2 through Michaelis-Arbuzov reaction under conventional as well as microwave irradiation methods. Herein, tetraalkyl 1,4- phenylenebis(methylene)diphosphonates 5(a-d)/dimethyl 1,4-phenylenebis(methylene)bis (phenylphosphinate) 5(e) and tetraalkyl pyridine-2,6-diyldiphosphonates 7(a-d)/ dimethyl pyridine-2,6-diylbis(phenylphosphinate) 7(e) were accomplished in high yields (85-94%) with simple work-up procedure in the presence of CeCl3.7H2O-SiO2 catalyst by the reaction of alkyl/aryl bromides with trialkyl phosphites. The present synthetic protocol demonstrated that silica supported Ce(III) is a easily prepared catalyst and recyclable, which catalyzed C-P bond formation in high yields in less time.
