Reactivity of a New Phosphinidene Iron Complex

Abstract

A decade ago, King [1] postulated the low temperature formation of the transient phosphinidene Fe(C0)₄ complex 1 from the reaction between ⁱPr₂NPCI₂ and Na₂Fe(C0)₄ to account for the observed formation of several iron clusters. The chemistry of 1 was not further explored. We were attractedto 1 because of its suggested ease of formation. For comparison, the well established transient phosphinidene complex PhP-W(C0)₅ (3) is generated via cheletropic elimination from 7-phosphanorbornadiene precursor at temperatures above 5O° C. We confirmed the presence of transient 1 via trapping experiments with acetylene derivatives that yielded in all cases phosphirenes 2 in fair to good yield.