Communications
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201104114
p-Conjugated Compounds
Bis(phosphoryl)-Bridged Biphenyls by Radical Phosphanylation:
Synthesis and Photophysical and Electrochemical Properties**
Achim Bruch, Aiko Fukazawa, Eriko Yamaguchi, Shigehiro Yamaguchi,* and Armido Studer*
The design of new electron-accepting p-conjugated frame-
works is of particular significance for the development of
n-type semiconducting materials[1] and narrow-band gap
polymers,[2] which show great potential as components in
organic electronics, such as thin-film transistors and photo-
voltaic cells. Biphenyls containing electron-accepting moiet-
ies might be simple and viable scaffolds for the design of such
p-electron systems. However, by simply introducing electron-
withdrawing groups as substituents renders the biphenyl
framework to appear in a twist conformation, resulting in a
decrease of p-conjugation. This problem can be elegantly
Figure 1. Electron-accepting dibenzoheteroles 1 and doubly bridged
biphenyls 2 and 3.
solved by incorporating an electron-accepting unit as the
bridging moiety. In this regard, main group elements are
attractive as the bridging moieties, since they not only fix the
biaryl framework in a planar geometry, but also allow the
electronic structure to be modified through the choice of
element.[3] Accordingly, various electron-accepting dibenzo-
heteroles 1 featuring Si,[4] P, [5] and S[6] as bridging elements
have been reported and used in various applications. In
particular, P-containing p-electron systems have so far
attracted considerable attention, because of their rich
follow-up chemistry, which is attributed to easy transforma-
tions to oxides, sulfides, and metal/Lewis acid complexes.[7]
Among the various functionalities derived from phosphanes,
phosphine oxides or sulfides are of particular interest due to
their highly electron-accepting character.[8,9]
As a novel electron-accepting biphenyl, we designed
bis(phosphoryl)-bridged biphenyl (BPB) 2, which displayed
the following characteristics: a) compact and planar structure
enabling effective orbital overlap and b) high electron-
accepting ability owing to two phosphine oxide units. Related
biphenyls 3 containing Si,[10,11] S,[12] Se,[13] and C[14] as the
bridging moieties have already been reported (Figure 1).
Herein, we disclose the synthesis of this novel skeleton and
discuss its potential as the electron-accepting unit.
All our initial attempts to access BPB 2 by fourfold
lithiation of 2,2,2’,2’-tetrabromobiphenyl (4) followed by
trapping with dichlorophenylphosphane and P-oxidation
failed. The problem was associated with multiple lithiation
of 4.[15]
We have recently shown that radical phosphanylation of
reactive aryl radicals is a highly efficient approach for the
synthesis of arylphosphanes.[16] The reactions occur under
rather mild conditions, and expensive transition-metal cata-
lysts are not necessary. Stannylated and silylated phosphanes
have been used as reagents, and reactions occurred in high
yields. We envisioned that 2 should be accessible by multiple
radical phosphanylation of biphenyl 4 with bis(trimethylstan-
nyl)phenylphosphane and subsequent oxidation.
We first tried radical phosphanylation of 4 with readily
prepared (Me3Sn)2PPh using a,a’-azobisisobutyronitrile
(AIBN) as initiator at 808C in benzene. Disappointingly,
after 24 h little conversion of the starting material had
occurred and after H2O2 oxidation none of the targeted
BPB 2 was identified (Table 1, entry 1). The same result was
obtained by performing the reaction at 1258C (Table 1,
entry 2). To our delight, switching to 1,1’-azobis(cyclohex-
ane-1-carbonitrile) (V-40) as initiator afforded traces of the
desired BPB after 24 h (Table 1, entry 3). Prolonged reaction
time led to higher conversion, and after oxidation with H2O2
trans-2 and cis-2 were isolated in good yields (Table 1,
entry 4). As expected, oxidation did not occur diastereose-
lectively and both isomers were isolated in similar yields. By
running the reaction in benzotrifluoride the reaction time
could be shortened to two days without decreasing the yield
(Table 1, entry 5). The success of this transformation is an
impressive demonstration of the efficiency of the radical
phosphanylation: four highly reactive aryl radicals are
trapped sequentially and although severe ring strain is
generated in the formation of the second five-membered
[*] A. Bruch, Prof. Dr. A. Studer
Organisch-Chemisches Institut
Westfꢀlische Wilhelms-Universitꢀt
Corrensstrasse 40, 48149 Mꢁnster (Germany)
E-mail: studer@uni-muenster.de
Prof. Dr. A. Fukazawa, E. Yamaguchi, Prof. Dr. S. Yamaguchi
Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science
Nagoya University and JST-CREST
Furo, Chikusa, Nagoya 464-8602 (Japan)
E-mail: yamaguchi@chem.nagoya-u.ac.jp
[**] A.S. and A.B. thank the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
for financial support.
Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW
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ꢀ 2011 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2011, 50, 12094 –12098