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Updated: Apr 12, 2026

Preparation and Use of Carbonyl-decorated Carbenes in the Activation of White Phosphorus
Published on: October 3, 2014
The reductive P-P coupling of primary and secondary phosphines mediated by N-heterocyclic carbenes
Heidi Schneider1, David Schmidt, Udo Radius
1Institut für Anorganische Chemie, Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, Am Hubland, D-97074 Würzburg, Germany. u.radius@uni-wuerzburg.de.
Abstract:
The dehydrogenative coupling of primary and secondary phosphines with the N-heterocyclic carbene iPr2Im (1,3-di-isopropyl-imidazolin-2-ylidene) has been reported. The dehydrogenation of R2PH affords diphosphines R2P-PR2. The reaction of iPr2Im with ArPH2 leads to the formation of NHC phosphinidene adducts iPr2Im[double bond, length as m-dash]PAr and cyclic oligophosphines P4Ar4, P5Ar5 and P6Ar6, depending on the stoichiometry used. The NHC acts in these reactions as a phosphine activator and hydrogen acceptor.
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