Isolation of an elusive phosphatetrahedrane.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 32232162.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/sciadv.aaz3168 and PMC identifier 7096166.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
This exploratory synthesis investigation was undertaken to determine the viability of replacing a single carbon vertex with another p-block element in a highly strained tetrahedrane molecule. Phosphorus was selected for this purpose because the stable molecular form of elemental phosphorus is tetrahedral. Our synthetic strategy was to generate an unsaturated phosphorus center bonded to a substituted cyclopropenyl group, a situation that could lead to closure to provide the desired phosphatetrahedrane framework. This was accomplished by dehydrofluorination of the in situ generated fluorophosphine H(F)P(C <i><sup>t</sup></i> Bu)<sub>3</sub>. Tri-<i>tert</i>-butyl phosphatetrahedrane, P(C <i><sup>t</sup></i> Bu)<sub>3</sub>, was then isolated in 19% yield as a low-melting, volatile, colorless solid and characterized spectroscopically and by a single-crystal x-ray diffraction study, confirming the tetrahedral nature of the molecule's PC<sub>3</sub> core. The molecule exhibits unexpected thermal stability.