A mild and efficient method was developed for the copper-catalyzed additions of H-phosphonate diesters to boronic acids under the copper catalyst system Cu(2)O/1,10-phenanthroline. To the best of our knowledge this finding is the first example of a copper-catalyzed synthesis of aryl phosphonates from arylboronic acids and H-phosphonate dialkyl esters.

P-Arylation in water has been developed via cross-coupling of aryl halides with diphenylphosphine oxide (Ph(2)P(O)H) and (R(P))-(-)-menthyl benzylphosphinate catalyzed by NiCl(2)·6H(2)O/Zn under relatively mild conditions.

The Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling of aryl phosphates using Ni(PCy(3))(2)Cl(2) as an inexpensive, bench-stable catalyst is described. Broad substrate scope and high efficiency are demonstrated by the syntheses of more than 40 biaryls and by constructing complex organic molecules. The poor reactivity of aryl phosphates relative to aryl halides is successfully employed to construct polyarenes by selective cross-coupling using Pd and Ni catalysts.