A sterically congested cis-stilbene and its phosphonium salt precursor

Triphenyl(2,4,5-trimethoxybenzyl)phosphonium chloride is formed in solvent-free form by the reaction under anhydrous conditions between triphenylphosphane and 2,4,5-trimethoxybenzyl chloride, but when it is crystallized from a mixture of ethyl acetate and chloroform in the presence of air it forms a stoichiometric monohydrate, C28H28O3P(+)·Cl(-)·H2O, (I). The reactions between the anhydrous phosphonium salt and alkoxy-substituted benzaldehydes, using Wittig reactions in the presence of potassium tert-butoxide, provide a series of multiply substituted stilbenes, most of which were assigned the Z configuration on the basis of their NMR spectra. However, no such deduction could be made for the symmetrically substituted (Z)-2,2',4,4',5,5'-hexamethoxystilbene, C20H24O6, (II). Compound (II) does in fact have the Z configuration and the molecular geometry provides evidence for steric congestion around the central double bond; in particular, the central alkene fragment is nonplanar, with a C-C=C-C torsion angle of 7.8 (4)°. In hydrated salt (I), the chloride anions and water molecules are linked by O-H···Cl hydrogen bonds to form C2(1)(4) chains; each cation is linked by C-H···O hydrogen bonds to two different chains, so forming a sheet structure. There are no direction-specific intermolecular interactions in the structure of (II).