Nitrenes phosphinidines

For sometime, phosphinidines, monovalent organophosphorus species with the general formulation (R-P), have been postulated as reactive intermediates in the thermal and photochemical decomposition of several types of stable organophosphorus compounds. While not isolated as stable molecules, these monovalent species can be inferred on the basis of the isolation of products whose structures can be derived rationally from the postulation of such species, as well as on the mass spectra of the transient species themselves. We may view phosphinidines as the phosphorus analogues of nitrenes (R-N), highly reactive monovalent nitrogen species formed as transient intermediates in the thermal decomposition of azides and in the a-elimination reaction of A-tosylates. 

Although there is a structural analogy of the two species, there are chemical and electronic differences between nitrenes and phosphinidines. 

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