A particularly wide variety of suitable redox processes are available for the formation of P-P bonds. For example, from the reaction of white phosphorus with phosphanes and phosphanides Schmidpeter et al. obtained cyclic and acyclic triphospheniuin ions containing phosphorus(1) centers with eight electrons.[" Diphosphinornethanides are particularly suitable for the synthesis of heterocycles containing a P, unit; they caa react with PC1, to yield heterocycles with eight-,"] seven-, or sixmembered rings.[21 However, in the reaction of PCI, with Li[C(PMe,),(SiMe,)] it was not possible to completely rule out the formation of an as yet unknown four-membered ring system (triphosphete) rather than an eight-membered ring. ['] 1,2-Dipho~phetenes,[~' 1,2,3-tripho~phetenes,[~~ and 1,3-dipho~phetes[~] have been known for some time. In order to discover whether an eight-or a four-membered ring was formed, we exchanged the methyl substituents on the phosphorus atoms of the phosphinomethanide for phenyl groups [Eq. (a)]. Indeed, 1 Z a : E = P 3 Zb:E=As the four-membered ring compounds 2a,b were obtained as colorless crystals from pentane, and were unequivocally characterized by elemental analysis and by mass and NMR spectra. If 2a is formulated with formal charges, then the phosphanide nature of the divalent phosphorus atom (oxidation state i-I) is evident and in agreement with the observed high-field 31P NMR shift (6 = -86.31). The course of the reaction can be easily understood in terms of Li/CI exchange, subsequent elimination of LiC1, and a further substitution step. In this last step the behavior of 2a differs from that of the methylated compound,"] because Ph,P-PPh, coupling of the phosphinomethanides as the pertinent redox step is obviously not feasible for steric reasons.[61 If SbCI, and BiCI, are treated with 1 in an analogous manner, then the P-chloromethylenephosphorane 3 is obtained along with elemental antimony and bismuth, respectively. An alternative method, based on the Schmidpeter procedure,['] yields 2 a from white phosphorus and 1. Although only produced in moderate yields (30%), it is free of 3. The stoichiometry was chosen based on the (hypothetical) formation of Li,P, [Eq. (b)] . [' I X-ray structural analysis"] of the isotypic compounds 2a,b revealed that they both crystallize in the space group P i and