“…Indeed, we have shown that nontrigonal s 3 -P compounds (see 1 and 2,F igure 1a)e volve to pentacoordinate phosphorus (s 5 -P) products through oxidative addition of EÀHb onds (E = OR, NHR, Ru), [25][26][27][28] in some cases reversibly. [29][30][31][32][33][34][35] Although applications of the biphilic character of nontrigonal s 3 -P compounds such as 1 and 2 have emerged in reactivity,adirect experimental demonstration of how the C 3v !C s structural deformation controls s 3 -P frontier orbital energies has not been previously presented. With av iew toward establishing arational schema for biphilic s 3 -P design, we provide here the first explicit spectroscopic evidence validating the descent-in-symmetry hypothesis of biphilicity at s 3 -P.T hrough phosphorus K-edge X-ray absorption nearedge structure (XANES) spectroscopy and supporting (TD)DFT demonstrations,w eq uantify the impact of nontrigonal distortion (C 3v !C s !C 2v )onthe electronic structure of as eries of compositionally related compounds and show that nontrigonal s 3 -P compounds present inherently contracted frontier orbital energy gaps that colocalize electrondonor and electron-acceptor behavior at as ingle s 3 -P site, engendering biphilic character.O verall, these results codify how structural modifications control s 3 -P electronic structure and provide aforward-looking blueprint for the development of next-generation nontrigonal P III catalysts and ligands with exceptional biphilic reactivity.…”