Tetracovalent phosphorus

Stereochemical evidence for the mechanism of nucleophilic substitution at a tetracovalent phosphorus atom has been mainly forthcoming from the experiments of Michalski et a/.48-50 with esters containing thiophosphoryl centers. Until recently, the inaccessibility of suitable optically active phosphorus compounds precluded stereochemical investigations on the mechanisms of their hydrolysis. 

In P-NMR spectroscopy, the term tetracovalent phosphorus is sometimes used with a different meaning. Here, the phosphorus lone pair is counted as a valency, although strictly speaking that is incorrect. However, counting the lone pair, a trialkyl phosphane features a tetracovalent phosphorus atom. That phosphorus atom should be sp -hybridized. 

Potts and co-workers have used phosphorus pentasulfide and pyridine as a standard reagent for constructing annelated diphenylthiophene rings from o-dibenzoyl compounds. Many of these annelated thiophenes can be written only in the tetracovalent sulfur or ylid dipolar form (96) and are thus termed nonclassical 123 other examples, particularly of the synthesis of non-classical thienoisothiazoles, have been reported by Gotthardt.124... 

A remarkable reaction in which a monomer reacts to form a polymer has been observed by Foxman and his students.37 They prepared [Ni P(CH2CH2CH2NH2)3 2Br2], in which the bromine and phosphorus atoms are coordinated to the tetracovalent nickel. Upon heating, the nickel... 

Molecular orbital calculations have also provided theoretical justification for these stereoelectronic effects in tetracovalent and pentacovalent phosphorus species (2-7). As has been shown in molecular orbital calculations on the X -P-X2 (X = 0,N) structural fragments, the X.-P bond is strengthened (as indicated by an increase in the Mulliken overlap population) while the P-X3 bond is weakened when the X atom lone pair is app to the P-X3 bond. Thus, in the g,t conformation of dimethyl phosphate (Structure ll the overlap population for the trans P-0 bond is. 017 electron lower than the overlap population for the gauche P-0 bond. As shown for g,t dimethyl phosphate one lone pair (shaded in 1) on the gauche bond oxygen is app to the trans bond, while no lone pairs on the trans bond oxygen are app to the gauche bond. Thus, the weakest X.-P bond has one app lone pair and no lone pairs on X. app to the P=X2 bond. 1... 

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