Phosphoryl chloride (commonly called phosphorus oxychloride) is a colourless liquid with the formula P O Cl₃. It hydrolyses in moist air releasing phosphoric acid and choking fumes of hydrogen chloride. It is manufactured industrially on a large scale from phosphorus trichloride and oxygen or phosphorus pentoxide. It is mainly used to make phosphate esters such as tricresyl phosphate.

Like phosphate, phosphoryl chloride is tetrahedral in shape. It features three P−Cl bonds and one strong P=O double bond, with an estimated bond dissociation energy of 533.5 kJ/mol. On the basis of bond length and electronegativity, the Schomaker-Stevenson rule suggests that the double bond form is very dominant (in contrast with POF₃). The P=O bond does not utilize the d-orbitals on phosphorus as is commonly described in older textbooks as quantum chemical calculations have shown that d-orbitals are not involved in main group chemical bonding (see Hypervalent molecule). More modern texts favour a description which involves the donation of the lone pair electrons from oxygen p-orbitals to the antibonding phosphorus-chlorine bonds thus constituting π bonding.

With a freezing point of 1 °C and boiling point of 106 °C, the liquid range of POCl₃ is rather similar to water.

POCl₃ reacts with water and alcohols to give hydrogen chloride and phosphoric acid or phosphate esters, respectively:

Such reactions are often performed in the presence of an HCl acceptor such as pyridine or an amine. If POCl₃ is heated with an excess of a phenol (ArOH) in the presence of a Lewis acid catalyst such as magnesium chloride, a triaryl phosphate ester such as triphenyl phosphate is formed. For example:

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