Conspectus
Like singlet
carbenes and silylenes,
transient electrophilic terminal
phosphinidene complexes enabled highly selective synthetic transformations,
but the required multistep synthetic protocols precluded widespread
use of these P1 building blocks. By contrast, nucleophilic
M/Cl phosphinidenoid complexes can be easily accessed in one step
from [M(CO)
n
(RPCl2)] complexes.
This advantage and the mild reaction conditions opened broad synthetic
applicability that enabled access to a variety of novel compounds.
The chemistry will be described in this Account, including bonding
and mechanistic considerations derived from high-level density functional
theory calculations.
In 2007, we gained the first strong evidence
for the formation
of these thermally labile complexes using two different synthetic
approaches: P–H deprotonation and Cl/Li exchange; the latter
has become the preferred method. Intense studies revealed that steric
demand of the P substituents in combination with metal complexation,
a donor solvent, and/or the presence of a crown ether are necessary
prerequisites for the formation and especially the usability of these
intermediates as novel P1 building blocks. Solution-phase
NMR spectroscopy and solid-state X-ray diffraction studies revealed
the bonding situation, i.e., a solvent-separated ion pair structure,
and typical 31P NMR signatures of the anions. To date,
we have established the following reactivity patterns for Li/Cl phosphinidenoid
complexes: self-condensations (I), electrophilic and
nucleophilic reactions (II), 1,1-additions (III), [2 + 1] cycloadditions (IV), ring expansions (V), and redox reactions (VI). For example, self-condensations
can yield dinuclear acyclic or polycyclic diphosphane or diphosphene
complexes. Their use as nucleophiles and electrophiles can be employed
to access functional phosphane ligands with mixed substitution patterns.
1,1-Addition reactions were a puzzling discovery because the resulting
products resembled classical P–C π-bond structures but
the bonding was more of a donor-to-phosphorus adduct with significant
differences in bonding parameters. Into the same category and also
surprising fall formal E–H insertion reactions leading to 1,1′-bifunctional
phosphane complexes. To date, the most important synthetic impact
was achieved in the chemistry of strained P-heterocyclic ligands such
as oxaphosphiranes and azaphosphiridines, obtained via [2 + 1] cycloadditions
of the title compounds with carbonyls and imines, respectively. Ring
expansions have been shown to yield 1,2-oxaphosphetanes and 1,2-thiaphosphetanes,
and because of the pool of industrially important epoxides, this provides
straightforward and affordable access to these novel P-heterocyclic
ligands, which also promise to be of interest in catalytic applications.
Recent developments describe redox transformations of Li/Cl phosphinidenoid
complexes into new reactive intermediates such as complexes with open-shell
P-functional phosphanyl ligands via oxidative single electron transfer
reactions or into te...