Silyl‐ and germyl‐substituted diorganophosphonites

Abstract

Reactions of metalated diorganophosphonite boranes with triorganosilyl and ‐germyl halides provided borane adducts of diorgano(tetryl)phosphonites. Further treatment with excess Et3N or DABCO yielded the borane‐free species (RO)2P‐ER′>3 (E=Si, Ge; R, R′=alkyl, aryl). The products of all reactions were characterized by elemental analyses and NMR data, and in selected cases by MS and single‐crystal XRD studies. Reactions of selected ligands with Ni(CO)4 and selenium were shown to produce Ni(CO)‐complexes or diorgano(tetryl) phosphonoselenoates (RO)(R′3E)P=Se, respectively, which were identified spectroscopically but could not be isolated. Evaluation of the TEP and 1JPSe coupling constants were used for a first assessment of the electron donor properties of the new molecules.