Phosphinines belong to an intriguing class of phosphorus-containing heterocycles with interesting steric, electronic and coordinating properties. This article focuses on recent developments, concepts and perspectives in the field of phosphinines and phosphinine-based ligands and their application as ligands in homogeneous catalytic reactions.

An innovative BASF catalyst manufacturing technology (NanoSelect™) is introduced which allows production of heterogeneous catalysts with excellent control over metal crystallite sizes. NanoSelect™ technology enabled the development of Pd catalysts which are lead-free Lindlar catalyst replacements in alkyne-to-cis-alkene hydrogenations. NanoSelect™ Pt catalysts showed excellent chemoselectivity in substituted nitro-arene hydrogenation reactions without build-up of hydroxylamine intermediates. All NanoSelect™ produced catalysts show markedly higher activity per gram of metal leading to ten-fold less use of precious metal.