Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol.141, No.17, 6843-6847, 2019
Direct Functionalization of White Phosphorus to Cyclotetraphosphanes: Selective Formation of Four P-C Bonds
Converting elemental white phosphorus directly into organophosphorus or polyphosphorus is meaningful, challenging and attractive. The ate-complexes of aluminacyclopentadienes 1a,b react with P-4 to afford selectively the cyclotetraphosphanes 2a,b featuring four newly formed P-C bonds and a planar square cyclo-P 4 ring. Density functional theory calculations show that the conversion of tetrahedral P-4 to planar cyclo-P-4 moiety undergoes through an unexpected 1,1-P-insertion/Diels-Alder reaction/isomerization cascade process. The reaction of 2a with iodomethane or p-benzoquinone afforded the P-methylation product 3 and the metal-free cyclotetraphosphane 4, respectively. Interestingly, reduction of 4 generated the phospholyl anions 5 and 6 while treatment of 4 with iodomethane afforded the phospholyl cation 7.