Phosphorus phosphazenes

In an excellent review by Roesky et al. in 1994 [70a] a vast number of examples for coordination complexes of cyclic phosphazanes and phosphazenes and other related systems have already been compiled. In the following section, an attempt is made to cover the latest features of group 13 systems along with some earlier examples with phosphorus-nitrogen based systems other than pyridyl phosphanes. 

Poly(phosphazenes) are similar, partly inorganic polymers in that they consist of inorganic backbone, in this case of nitrogen and phosphorus atoms. They are separated formally by alternating single and double bonds and carry organic groups on the phosphorus atoms (10.3). 

Regardless of the way in which polydichlorophosphazene is prepared (vide supra), this polymer should be handled almost immediately because of the extreme reactivity of the chlorine atoms attached to the phosphorus of the poly-phosphazene chain toward nucleophilic groups and water. 

In this context, phosphoranimine compoimds (both homosubstituted with an unique group or bearing two different groups at the phosphorus) play a fundamental role because their polymerization under different experimental conditions eventually leads to fully substituted polyphosphazenes with no residual chlorines on the phosphazene skeleton. The general scheme of the phosphoranimine polymerization processes is reported in Fig. 10. 

As described in several review articles [409,452-454] and books [10,13,15], this is basically due to the inherent features of the d -p bond in phosphazenes, which allows the permanent overlapping of the 2pj orbital of the skeletal nitrogens with any one of the 3p orbitals of the phosphorus atoms [455]. Such a high chain flexibihty generated very low glass transition temperatures in these polymers, which can reach values of about -100 °C when suitable flexible substituent groups (e.g. n-butanol) are present on the skeletal phosphorus [274]. 

Phosphazene polymers can act as biomaterials in several different ways [401, 402,407]. What is important in the consideration of skeletal properties is that the -P=N- backbone can be considered as an extremely stable substrate when fluorinated alcohols [399,457] or phenoxy [172] substituents are used in the substitution process of the chlorine atoms of (NPCl2)n> but it becomes highly hydrolytically unstable when simple amino acid [464] or imidazole [405-407] derivatives are attached to the phosphorus. In this case, an extraordinary demolition reaction of the polymer chain takes place under mild hydrolytic conditions transforming skeletal nitrogen and phosphorus into ammonium salts and phosphates, respectively [405-407,464]. This opens wide perspectives in biomedical sciences for the utilization of these materials, for instance, as drug delivery systems [213,401,405,406,464] and bioerodible substrates [403,404]. 

In this case chain mobility is strongly inhibited by the rigid structure of the side phosphorus substituents and the resulting TgS are exceedingly high for the usual standard of phosphazene macromolecules. 

Of course, not all the phosphazene polymers that have been synthesized are equally important. Many of them, in fact, have a mere academic or speculative interest, and will not be described in this article. A few other classes of POPs, however, do occupy an important place in phosphazene history, and have been seriously considered for industrial development and commercialization. These polymers are basically those in which the properties of the inorganic -P=N- skeleton overlap to the highest extent those of the phosphorus side substituents. In the successive sections of this article we will describe in some detail the most important classes of polyphosphazenes that fulfil this condition. 

As already reported in Table 6, the solubility of phosphazene polymers is strongly influenced by the nature of the substituent groups attached at the phosphorus atoms along the -P=N- skeleton. Water-solubility, for instance, can be induced in polyphosphazenes by using strongly polar substituents (e.g. methylamine [84], glucosyl [495], glyceryl [496], polyoxyethylene mono-methylether [273] or sulfonic acid [497,498] derivatives), or may be promoted by acids or bases when basic (amino substituents like ethylamine [499]) or acid (e.g. aryloxy carboxylate [499] or aryloxy hydroxylate [295]) substituents are exploited. 

A. From Amides and Phosphorus(v) Halides.—The Kirsanov reaction remains one of the most important routes to acyclic phosphazenes some recent examples of this reaction are summarized below ... 

B. From Cyano-compounds and Phosphorus(v) Halides.—Continued reports of the reactions of alkyl cyanides with phosphorus pentachloride appear. With dicyanides the formation of phosphazenes occurs via a series of intermediates whose stability varies with the nature of X ... 

With 3-aminopropionitrile hydrochloride, phosphorus pentachloride produces phosphazene linkages at both ends of the alkyl chain, as might be expected from the foregoing discussion ... 

The products from the reactions with phosphorus pentachioride vary even with the nature of the aryl group. Thus, the p-chlorophenyl compound gave a product analogous to (6), but it was accompanied by the dimeric phosphazene, [p-ClCeHiNPClsJa. 

The reactions of boron trifluoride adducts of ammonia,and primary, secondary, and tertiary amines with phosphorus pentachloride have been studied and in the first two cases acyclic phosphazenes were obtained. With the ammonia-adduct, a previously characterized phosphazene salt was obtained ... 

Examples of cyclophosphazenes with ring systems containing elements other than phosphorus or nitrogen continue to be reported. The linear phosphazene [Ph2(H2N)Pi N.i P(NH2)Ph2]+Cl is cyclized by antimony pentachloride to give the compound (35). This result contrasts with... 

The use of n-butylamino-derivatives of cyclophosphazenes in flame-proofing cellulose-based fabrics has been described in a patent application. The topic of fiame retardants is also covered in a recent review, where phosphazenes are important because of their relatively high phosphorus and nitrogen contents. 

Linear phosphazene polymers, obtained from the reaction of ammonium chloride with phosphorus pentachloride in chlorobenzene, may be rendered hydrolytically stable by reaction of one of the terminal chlorine atoms with, for example, sodium phenoxide ... 

B. Studies of Equilibria and Reactions.—N.m.r. spectroscopy is being increasingly employed to study the mode and course of reactions. Thus n.m.r. has been used to unravel the mechanism of the reaction of phosphorus trichloride and ammonium chloride to give phosphazenes, and to follow the kinetics of alcoholysis of phosphoramidites. Its use in the study of the interaction of nucleotides and enzymes has obtained valuable information on binding sites and conformations and work on the line-widths of the P resonance has enabled the calculation of dissociation rate-constants and activation energies to be performed. 

An alternative method of synthesis of N3P3Cl6 has been developed recently, based on the reaction of tris (trimethylsilyl) amine and phosphorus pentachloride (40). This reaction either preferentially leads to the formation of N3P3C16 or to an N-silylated phosphoranimine intermediate C13P - NSiMe3, depending on the reaction conditions used. Thus the reaction between tris (trimethylsilylamine) and PC15 in methylene chloride at 40° C affords a mixture of cyclo and linear phosphazenes, which has been shown by an NMR analysis to contain up to 76% of N3P3C16 (Eq. 2). 

The phosphorus atom of the cyclophosphazene ring can also be involved in interaction with transition metal atoms either by a coordinate or by a covalent linkage. The former occurs with hydridocyclo-phosphazenes by a tautomerization of the P-H to result in a P(III) center (222). The covalent mode of linkage occurs by the reaction of the appropriate organometallic or metal fragment with the halo-genocyclophosphazenes (223). 

Acyclic phosphazenes (phosphazo derivatives, phosphine imines, phosphoranimines) continue to attract interest. A review of the three coordinate materials, RN=PR =X has appeared. " Several molecular orbital calculations have been reported. An ab initio treatment of the PN energy surface suggests that this species is best regarded as having a dative phosphorus-nitrogen double bond rather than a triple bond and the phosphonitrene, once formed,... 

A number of ab initio molecular orbital calculations have been performed on acyclic and cyclic phosphazenes. These calculations point to a phosphorus-nitrogen bond with a large degree of charge separation and a small but essential contribution from phosphorus d-orbitals. 

An overview of the synthesis and characterization of a unique class of polymers with a phosphorus-nitrogen backbone Is presented, with a focus on poly(dichloro-phosphazene) as a common Intermediate for a wide variety of poly(organophosphazenes). Melt and solution polymerization techniques are Illustrated, Including the role of catalysts. The elucidation of chain structure and molecular weight by various dilute solution techniques Is considered. Factors which determine the properties of polymers derived from poly(dichlorophos-phazene) are discussed, with an emphasis on the role that the organic substituent can play In determining the final properties. 

The true value of the chloropolymer (I) lies in its use as an intermediate for the synthesis of a wide variety of polytorgano-phosphazenes) as shown in Figure 1. The nature and size of the substituent attached to the phosphorus plays a dominant roll in determining the properties of the polyphosphazene. Homopolymers prepared from I, in which the R groups are the same or, if different, similar in molecular size, tend to be semi-crystalline thermoplastics. If two or more different substituents are introduced, the resulting polymers are generally amorphous elastomers. (See Figure 1.)... 

In recent years, many poly(phosphazenes), [RoPN]n, with a variety of substituents at phosphorus have been prepared and they often exhibit useful properties including low temperature flexibility, resistance to chemical attack, flame retardancy, stability to UV radiation, and reasonably high thermal stability. (1,2) Compounds containing biologically, catalytically, or electrically active side groups are also being investigated. (3,4)... 

---