Different metal catalysts have been tested for the one-pot transformation of carbonyl compounds, amines and phosphites to α-aminophosphonates. The influence of catalyst type, amount, solvent and the substrate electronic factor have been investigated. The results revealed that the carbonyl compounds could be smoothly converted into α-aminophosphonates at room temperature in good to excellent yields, with or without solvent in a reasonable reaction time. These results suggested that among others, lithium perchlorate and metal triflates were proven to be effective catalysts in 10 moles % catalysts. Polar aprotic solvents proved to be the best for the synthesis of α-aminophosphonates. The synthesized compounds' structure characterizations were elucidated by different spectroscopic tools and showed results consistent with the expected structures.

Oxidation of alcohols to carbonyl compounds has become an important issue in the process industry as well as many other applications. In this method, various benzylic alcohols were successfully converted to corresponding aldehydes and ketones under transition metal-free condition using hydrogen peroxide in the presence of some amount of catalytic acidic silica gel. Silica gel is inexpensive and available. One of the most important features of this method is its short reaction time.