Synthesis, crystal structure and absolute configuration of (+)-(α-hydroxybenzyl)phenylphosphinic acid

The title compound (+)-(alpha-hydroxybenzyl)phenylphosphinic acid (C13H13O3P, M-r= 248.20) has been synthesized and characterized by P-31 NMR, H-1 NMR and elemental analysis. X-ray diffraction analysis at 293(2) K indicates that the compound belongs to monoclinic system, space group C2 with cell parameters: a = 23.560(8), b = 6.947(2), c = 7.854(3) Angstrom, beta= 91.273(6)degrees, V = 1285.2(7) Angstrom(3), Z = 4, D-c = 1.283 g/cm(3), F(000) = 520 and mu(MoKalpha) = 0.207 mm(-1). The number of independent reflections amounts to 1991, of which 1507 are observed reflections. The crystal structure has been determined by direct methods (SHELXL-97). The structure parameters are refined by full-matrix least-squares on F-2 to R = 0.0437 and wR = 0.0893. The flack x parameter is - 0.0001. The absolute configuration of the a-carbon in the title compound is S.