Phosphonium ylides bond lengths

Synthesis and Characterisation of Phosphonium Ylides. - We start this section with a phosphanylidene-o -phosphorane (14) which, although not strictly an ylide, has a P-P bond which displays many of the properties of more conventional phosphonium ylides. A crystal structure of (14) revealed a P-P bond length of 2.084(2) A, which is similar to those found in other phos-phanylidene-o( -phosphoranes and is certainly shorter than a typical P-P single bond ca. 2.22 A), indicative of multiple bond character. Compound (14) undergoes reactions with electrophiles (Scheme 1) which demonstrate its nucleophilic... 

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