The direct syntheses of imidic-phosphinic mixed anhydrides and phosphinates were accomplished via phosphorylation of isocyanates or aldehydes with N-phosphine oxide-substituted imidazolylidenes (PoxIms) that are equipped with both nucleophilic carbene and electrophilic phosphorus moieties. In addition, the catalytic cyclotrimerization of phenyl isocyanate took place by employing a PoxIm having bis-N-phosphine oxide groups. The results presented in the current study demonstrate that judiciously designed multifunctional carbenes represent a promising potential for the phosphorylation of heterocumulenes and carbonyl compounds.
Keywords: N-Heterocyclic carbene (NHC) | Phosphine oxide | PhosphorylationOver the past couple of decades, N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) have found a multitude of applications in diverse research areas in organic, inorganic, and organometallic chemistry.1 The advancement of these research areas has largely benefitted from the advent of novel NHCs and other stable carbenes that exhibit unprecedented functionality.2 Among these examples, NHC derivatives containing a phosphorus-based functional group have been extensively employed as multidentate ligands for transition metals.3 However, there are only few reports on NHCs that contain a phosphine oxide moiety. 4,5 The reactivity of these carbenes should be of substantial interest as the phosphine oxide moiety could function as a hemi-labile coordination ligand, 4b,5c as well as an electron-withdrawing substituent. 4a We developed N-phosphine oxide-substituted imidazolylidenes (PoxIms) as a novel type of isolable NHCs, 5a that afforded carboxylic-phosphinic mixed anhydrides via direct phosphorylation of CO 2 (Scheme 1).5b The resulting mixed anhydride was subsequently transformed into a variety of unsymmetrical carbonyl compounds via the corresponding imidazolium salt followed by a sequential double substitution reaction. In this work, we envisioned that the direct syntheses of imidicphosphinic mixed anhydrides and phosphinates could be achieved by the treatment of PoxIms with isocyanates and aldehydes, respectively (Scheme 1). These unprecedented transformations should offer novel and efficient methods for phosphorylation of carbonyl compounds.6 Given the significant utility of these organophosphorus compounds that are frequently encountered in bioactive reagents as well as industrial commodities, 6a6d development of an efficient phosphorylation method should be noteworthy. Herein, we report the phosphorylation of isocyanates and aldehydes by using PoxIms.The reaction of phenyl isocyanate (2a) with PoxIm 1a in toluene at room temperature afforded mixed anhydride 3a in 95% yield through the formation of the oxygenphosphorous bond (Scheme 2), which was unambiguously confirmed by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis (Figure 1a). In the 13 C NMR spectrum, the resonances for C1 and C2 are observed at ¤ C 140.4 ( 2 J C,P = 12.0 Hz) and 129.2 ppm ( 3 J C,P = 12.0 Hz), respectively. In the 31 P NMR spectrum, the resonance for the phosphinate ...