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Experimental evidence of phosphine oxide generation in solution and trapping by ruthenium complexes.

Phosphorus oxides, oxyacids, and their esters are important chemicals for industry. Apart from playing a role in most organisms in ruling their energy transformations, they find wide and diverse applications, such as fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, lubricants, flame retardants, additives for special plastics and materials, and drugs for different diseases. Little attention has however been paid to lower-oxidation-state species, such as PO, HPO, and P2O, for which synthetic isolation procedures and even direct evidence of their existence are scarce. One of the most elusive species in this regard is phosphine oxide, H3PO (I ; Scheme 1). This molecule was first observed by reacting atomic oxygen with PH3 using a discharge–flow system equipped with molecularbeam sampling mass spectrometry. Alternatively, red-light photolysis of co-deposited PH3/O3 onto an argon matrix at 12–18 K was used to generate and trap I in a very diluted concentration together with its tautomer phosphinous acid H2P(OH) (II), which was identified by FTIR. [4] Finally, Ault and Kayser observed the formation of H3PO in argon matrices after photochemical irradiation of a mixture of VOCl3, CrO2Cl2, and PH3. [5] Both molecules have been studied by theoretical methods. Application of an adequate phosphorus basis set has recently shown that, in contrast with previous ab initio studies, I is more stable than II by only about 1 kcalmol 1 in the gas phase. In contrast, computational analysis in aqueous solution showed that upon solvation I is largely preferred by about 10 kcal mol 1 owing to stronger hydrogen bonding with the highly polar P!O bond. The possible involvement of H3PO in the oxidative polymerization of phosphine to give polyhydride phosphorus PxHy polymers has been also proposed. Herein we show that the previously unknown P I species H3PO (I) can be easily generated in solution by electrochemical methods, and we provide evidence of its solution stability, its characterization by conventional NMR spectroscopy, and its trapping as a ligand in the coordination sphere of hydrosoluble ruthenium complexes after tautomerization to II. The electrochemical generation of H3PO was performed in a single electrochemical cell with a lead cathode and a sacrificial zinc anode using P4 melted in a slightly acidic water/ ethanol solution (2:1 volume ratio, water acidified with HCl, 2m) at 60 8C (Supporting Information, Figures S1, S2). The overall electrochemical process may be divided in two parts. In the first step, the electrochemical generation of PH3 on the lead cathode takes place as previously described, 11] while in the second step, mild oxidation of PH3 to H3PO occurs at the anodic surface of the zinc electrode. In agreement with cyclic voltammetry experiments showing an irreversible oxidation wave, PH3 is electrochemically active in the anodic potential range + 0.80–1.25 V (vs. Ag/AgNO3, 0.01m in CHCN3) and can be therefore oxidized in acidic water/ethanol 2:1 solution to H3PO (Supporting Information, Figure S3). Scheme 2 shows the overall electrochemical process resulting in the cathodic reduction of P4 to PH3 and anodic oxidation of PH3 to H3PO (E = + 1.24 V vs. Ag/AgNO3, 0.01m in CHCN3). Different working conditions were investigated to optimize the production of H3PO. The best performance was Scheme 1. Phosphine oxide (I) and its tautomer, phosphinous acid (II).