We describe herein the synthesis of a new unsymmetrical diarylphosphinic acid, a hapten aimed to produce catalytic antibodies for the hydrolysis of heterocyclic amides. The phosphinate functionality was selected as a mimic both of the tetrahedral intermediate and the transition state of higher energy along the reaction profile. The phenyl and 2,4,6-(trimethyl)-phenyl groups flanking the phosphinate were chosen in order to impose rotation around the P-C bond, a choice supported by ab initio calculations. This new hapten should elicit catalytic antibodies whose binding site could affect the distortion at nitrogen as well as the twist along the N-C(O) bond for heterocyclic amides. This hapten along with a series of new sterically hindered unsymmetrical phosphinic acid derivatives was prepared by a key palladium-catalysed step. © 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
