Synthesis, flame retardancy, and thermal degradation behaviors of novel organo-phosphorus compounds derived from 9,10-dihydro-9-oxa-10-phosphaphenanthrene-10-oxide (DOPO)

The Aryne-Abramov Reaction as a 1,2-Benzdiyne Platform for the Generation and Solvent-Dependent Trapping of 3-Phosphonyl Benzynes

Synthetic methodology utilizing two aryne intermediates (i.e., a formal benzdiyne) enables the rapid generation of structurally complex molecules with diverse functionality. This report describes the sequential generation of two ortho-benzyne intermediates for the synthesis of 2,3-disubstituted aryl phosphonates. Aryl phosphonates have proven useful in medicinal chemistry and materials science, and the reported methodology provides a two-step route to functionally dense variants by way of 3-phosphonyl benzyne intermediates. The process begins with regioselective trapping of a 3-trifloxybenzyne intermediate by an O-silyl phosphite in an Abramov-like reaction to bond the strained Csp carbons with phosphorus and silicon. Standard aryne-generating conditions follow to convert the resulting 2-silylphenyl triflate into a 3-phosphonyl benzyne, which readily reacts with numerous aryne trapping reactants to form a variety of 2,3-difunctionalized aryl phosphonate products. DFT computational studies shed light on important mechanistic details and revealed that 3-phosphonyl benzynes are highly polarizable. Specifically, the distortion in the internal bond angles at each of the Csp atoms was strongly influenced by both the electronegativity of the phosphonate ester groups as well as the dielectric of the computational solvation model. These effects were verified experimentally as the regioselectivity of benzyl azide trapping increased with more electronegative esters and/or increasingly polar solvents. Conversely, replacing the conventional solvent, acetonitrile, with nonpolar alternatives provided attenuated or even inverted selectivities. Overall, these studies showcase new reactivity of benzyne intermediates and extend the aryne relay methodology to include organophosphonates. Furthermore, this work demonstrates that the regioselectivity of aryne trapping reactions could be tuned by simply changing the solvent.

A study on preparation of modified Graphene Oxide and flame retardancy of polystyrene composite microspheres

In this paper, the ODOPM, a kind of 9, 10-dihydro-9-oxygen-heterooxy-10-phosphoro-10-oxygen (DOPO) derivative, was obtained by hydroxylation of DOPO. Further, a phosphorus nano-flame retardant (GO-ODOPM) was obtained by addition reaction with carboxylated Graphite Oxide (GO-COOH). And then Graphene Oxide/polystyrene (GO-ODOPM/PS) composite microspheres were obtained via suspension polymerization of styrene with GO-ODOPM. The decrease of the peak heat release rate (HRR) and total heat release rate (THR) for the GO-ODOPM/PS composite microspheres was obtained when the content of the additives was only 3.0 wt% is more than 36.2% and 33.6% compared with the pure PS microspheres, respectively. Thermogravimetric (TG), dynamic rheology and carbon residue analysis were used to study the flame-retardant mechanism of GO-ODOPM in PS microspheres. The results revealed that the addition of GO-ODOPM obviously reduced the fire hazard of polystyrene (PS) microspheres. Thus, this work provided a feasible method to design efficient flame retardants for enhancing fire safety of polymers.

Transcriptome profiling of HepG2 cells exposed to the flame retardant 9,10-dihydro-9-oxa-10-phosphaphenanthrene 10-oxide (DOPO)

The flame retardant, 9,10-dihydro-9-oxa-10-phosphaphenanthrene 10-oxide (DOPO), has been receiving great interest given its superior fire protection properties, and its predicted low level of persistence, bioaccumulation, and toxicity. However, empirical toxicological data that are essential for a complete hazard assessment are severely lacking. In this study, we attempted to identify the potential toxicological modes of action by transcriptome (RNA-seq) profiling of the human liver hepatocellular carcinoma cell line, HepG2. Such insight may help in identifying compounds of concern and potential toxicological phenotypes. DOPO was found to have little cytotoxic potential, with lower effective concentrations compared to other flame retardants studied in the same cell line. Differentially expressed genes revealed a wide range of molecular effects including changes in protein, energy, DNA, and lipid metabolism, along with changes in cellular stress response pathways. In response to 250 μM DOPO, the most perturbed biological processes were fatty acid metabolism, androgen metabolism, glucose transport, and renal function and development, which is in agreement with other studies that observed similar effects of other flame retardants in other species. However, treatment with 2.5 μM DOPO resulted in very few differentially expressed genes and failed to indicate any potential effects on biology, despite such concentrations likely being orders of magnitude greater than would be encountered in the environment. This, together with the low levels of cytotoxicity, supports the potential replacement of the current flame retardants by DOPO, although further studies are needed to establish the nephrotoxicity and endocrine disruption of DOPO.