Formation of phosphine imide (HN[double bond, length as m-dash]PH3) and its phosphinous amide (H2N-PH2) isomer

Cheng Zhu; Alexandre Bergantini; Santosh K Singh; Ralf I Kaiser; André K Eckhardt; Peter R Schreiner; Ya-Syuan Huang; Bing-Jian Sun; Agnes H H Chang

doi:10.1039/d0cc08411e

Formation of phosphine imide (HN[double bond, length as m-dash]PH₃) and its phosphinous amide (H₂N-PH₂) isomer

Chem Commun (Camb). 2021 May 18;57(40):4958-4961. doi: 10.1039/d0cc08411e.

Authors

Cheng Zhu¹, Alexandre Bergantini¹, Santosh K Singh¹, Ralf I Kaiser¹, André K Eckhardt², Peter R Schreiner², Ya-Syuan Huang³, Bing-Jian Sun³, Agnes H H Chang³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2545 McCarthy Mall, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA and W. M. Keck Laboratory in Astrochemistry, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2545 McCarthy Mall, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA. ralfk@hawaii.edu.
² Institute of Organic Chemistry, Justus Liebig University, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 17, Giessen 35392, Germany. ake05@mit.edu.
³ Department of Chemistry, National Dong Hwa University, Shoufeng, Hualien 974, Taiwan. hhchang@gms.ndhu.edu.tw.

PMID: 33876063
DOI: 10.1039/d0cc08411e

Abstract

We present the first formation of the previously elusive phosphine imide (HN[double bond, length as m-dash]PH3) along with its phosphinous amide (H2N-PH2) isomer via exposure of phosphine (PH3) and ammonia (NH3) ices to ionizing radiation. Our approach may be extended to prepare, separate, and detect highly reactive compounds such as intermediates of Wittig reactions.