2
M. Gruber et al. / Inorganica Chimica Acta xxx (2017) xxx–xxx
synthesized from triphenylphosphine and dibromomethane in
molten triphenylphosphate in accordance with a procedure pub-
lished by Driscoll and coworkers [17]. Dehydrobromination to 1
was effected with sodium amide in boiling, dry THF as described
by Zybill and Müller [46]. Recrystallization from rigorously dry,
hot MeCN yielded 1 as a yellow crystalline solid that is very sus-
ceptible to hydrolysis. In solution, 1 decomposes to diphenyl
((triphenyl-k5-phosphaneylidene)methyl)phosphine oxide (5) over
a period of several minutes to a few hours in the presence of trace
amounts of water, while in the solid state it reacts with ambient
moisture over a period of several days [14–16]. In order to prevent
decomposition, the pure solid was stored in a glove box, and solu-
tions for NMR analyses were also prepared in the glove box.
Fig. 1. Some examples illustrating the breadth of bonding of carbon.
2.2. NMR spectroscopy of 1
The 13C{1H} NMR spectrum of 1 is shown in Fig. 2. In addition to
the expected signals from the aromatic carbons in the range of
125–140 ppm and the associated carbon-phosphorus coupling, a
triplet is observed at d 13.4 that is consistent with the chemical
shift expected for the sp-hybridized ylide carbon (vide infra). The
1
Scheme 1. Test reactions of 1 with carbonyls to afford allenes 3.
observed one-bond coupling constant, at JCP = 130 Hz, is some-
what higher than that reported for other bisylides, such as Me3-
P@C@PMe3 (1JCP = 78 Hz) and MePh2P@C@PPh2Me (1JCP = 93 Hz)
[44].
Matthews and Birum successfully isolated a stable four-mem-
bered-ring ylide-ketone adduct from 1 [29]. A report by Verma
et al., in particular, caught our attention since it reported the suc-
cessful synthesis of tetraphenylallene using the reaction of 1 with
benzophenone via intermediate 2 [30].
In order to unequivocally assign the identity of the ylide carbon,
a 2D-correlation of 13C with 31P has been conducted based on the
classical X,H shift correlation sequence (HETCOR) [47–49], with
13C-detection and the 1H replaced by 31P (under conditions of con-
stant broadband 1H decoupling). An intense cross peak is observed
(Fig. 3a), confirming the strong correlation between the ylide car-
bon and phosphorus. It is worth noting that scalar coupling
between 13C and 31P is eliminated by additional 31P–decoupling
during acquisition, and thus, a single cross peak is observed.
In Fig. 3b, the X-part (13C) of the A2X spin system that results
from the coupling of the ylide carbon to the two magnetically
equivalent 31P nuclei is clearly observed in both spectral simula-
tion (Fig. 3b, top) and experimental acquisition (Fig. 3b, middle).
When additional 31P-decoupling is applied, the triplet collapses
to a singlet, as expected (Fig. 3b, bottom), providing confirmation
that the observed triplet in the 13C spectrum originates from
13C,31P-coupling.
As part of our ongoing interest in cumulenic systems [31–33],
we saw potential of this simple reaction for the synthesis of unsym-
metrical molecules, such as push-pull allenes 3 (Scheme 1), whose
syntheses are usually quite complex [34,35]. Using a variety of
ketones, conditions, and dry solvents, however, we have been
unable to develop WITTIG-type reactions using 1, and, to date, all
reactions between 1 and a range of carbonyl compounds have been
unsuccessful (see supporting information for details). At this point,
we abandoned our efforts in this direction, but we became enam-
ored with the idea that CDP 1 might formally be considered as
the limiting structure for [n]cumulenes (i.e., n = 1), namely a single
sp-hybridized carbon. While this analogy is clearly not rigorously
accurate, it does offer the framework for an interesting analysis of
CDP 1. We were curious if NMR spectroscopy could be used to
explore, for example, the bonding in 1, especially considering the
carbon-phosphorus coupling constants [36]. NMR spectroscopic
investigations of mono-functional phosphorus ylides (e.g., R3-
P@C@X or R3P@CX2) have been conducted by several groups during
the past 50 years [37–42]. Bisylides of the type R3P@C@PR3, on the
other hand, have attracted less attention, and NMR studies carried
out in the late 1970s by Schmidbaur and coworkers dominate these
efforts. These studies report on the NMR spectroscopic characteri-
zation of, for example, Me3P@C@PMe3 [43,44], MePh2P@C@PPh2Me
[44], and MePh2P@C@PPh3 [45]. Rather surprisingly, NMR data
describing the ‘‘parent” molecule 1 have not been reported to the
best of our knowledge. In the following report, we describe the
NMR spectroscopy of 1 using a number of techniques, including
2D NMR correlation experiments that unequivocally assign the sig-
nal of the ylide carbon atom. We then examine the carbon-phos-
Fig. 3c depicts the 31P{1H} spectrum of 1, highlighting the 13C-
satellite signals, and two sets of 13C-satellite signals are observed.
The first is an A2X spin system derived from 31P-coupling to 13C at
the central sp-hybridized carbon (Fig. 3c, the ylide-isotopomer,
open circles ‘‘s”). The second is an AA’X spin system derived from
31P-coupling to a 13C atom at the ipso-position of one of the phenyl
rings (Fig. 3c, the ipso-isotopomer, filled circles ‘‘d”, see supporting
information for more detail). Statistically, the AA’X spin system of
the ipso-isotopomer is statistically sixfold more likely to occur (i.e.,
six ipso carbons vs one ylide carbon) than the A2X spin system of
the ylide-isotopomer, and the satellites of the former are thus more
intense. The second order AA’X pattern of the ipso-isotopomer is
nicely reproduced using spin simulation (Fig. 3c, bottom).
2.3. Chemical shift comparisons and coupling constants
phorus spin-spin coupling constants (1JCP
) in comparison to
structurally related compounds with sp-hybridized carbon.
It is well established that the chemical shifts for 13C do not fol-
low the well-known empirical trends expected for protons based
on electronegativity and ‘‘shielding”, since 13C shifts are dominated
by paramagnetic rather than diamagnetic shielding [50]. As one
considers the range of chemical shifts for sp-hybridized carbon
that is directly bonded to phosphorus (Fig. 4, Table 1), it is clear
that the range of chemical shifts is quite amazing, from ca. 185
to –10 ppm. The chemical shift of the central sp-hybridized carbon
2. Results and discussion
2.1. Synthesis
Compound 1 is readily accessible from commercially available
reagents within two steps (Scheme 2). Phosphonium salt 4 was