Steric stabilisation of the P_P bond in a bulky tetraorganodiphosphine: synthesis, characterisation and X-ray structure determination of tetrakis(2,4,6-triisopropylphenyl)diphosphine

Brady, F. J., Cardin, C. J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2556-9995, Cardin, D. J. and Wilcock, D. J. (2000) Steric stabilisation of the P_P bond in a bulky tetraorganodiphosphine: synthesis, characterisation and X-ray structure determination of tetrakis(2,4,6-triisopropylphenyl)diphosphine. Inorganica Chimica Acta, 298 (1). pp. 1-8. ISSN 0020-1693 doi: 10.1016/S0020-1693(99)00343-6

Abstract/Summary

We report the synthesis and characterisation of tetrakis(2,4,6-triisopropylphenyl)diphosphine. Synthesis is effected by the treatment of PCl3 with an excess of 2,4,6-triisopropylphenyllithium (or the equivalent Grignard reagent) in 70% yield. While under normal circumstances the triarylphosphine would be expected, excessive bulk prevents this, and the resulting diphosphine is, unusually, stable to PP cleavage by further organolithium moieties. The compound is stable, both thermally (m.p. 185°C) and to air and water in the solid state, although conversion to the equivalent diorganophosphinate ester is effected by boiling ethanolic solutions in air. Crystallisation from hexane/ethanol afforded pale yellow crystals of X-ray quality. The molecule is characterised by m.p., IR, NMR, elemental analysis (C, H, P) and MS. The X-ray structure shows an antiperiplanar conformation with a PP separation of 2.2461(16) Å. Comparisons are made with other diphosphines, the title compound being only the fourth simple diphosphine to be structurally characterised.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/23747
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Chemistry, Food and Pharmacy > Department of Chemistry
Uncontrolled Keywords	Crystal structures; Diphosphine
Publisher	Elsevier
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