Solvent-free mechanochemical synthesis of phosphonium salts

Phosphonium salts have been prepared during high-energy ball-milling of triphenylphosphine with solid organic bromides; the reactions occur at ambient conditions without a solvent; in the case of 2-bromo-2-phenylacetophenone the reaction in a solution usually produces a mixture containing both the C-phosphorylated and O-phosphorylated compounds, while the solvent-free mechanically induced transformation results in the thermodynamically favorable C-phosphorylated product; the occurrence of the observed transformations during mechanical processing of solid reactants is confirmed by the solid-state 31P NMR spectroscopy and X-ray powder diffraction.