Elucidation of the Reaction Products of Acetonitrile with Phosphorus Pentachloride

Abstract

The reaction of acetonitrile with PCl, results in the ionic compounds (1) to (4) containing the trichloro[2-chloro-2-[(trichlorophosphoranyli-dene)amino]ethenyl]phosphorus cations and not in the compounds [CH2?C?NPCl₃]PCl₆1 or trichloro[2-chloro-1 -[(trichlorophosphoranyli-dene)amino] ethenyl]phosphorus hexachlorophosphate (5) as assumed from ³¹P-NMR spectra [2, 3]. The crystal structures of the compounds (1) to (4) were determined with X-rays at 95K. As observed for the CI-C(NPCl₃); cation all the cations show cis-trans conformations with respect to their CI-C-X-P torsion angles. The wcl3 groups of the cations have two different orientations with one C?N?P?CI torsion angle of about 0° (cis) as in (1) or about 180° (trans) as in (3) and (4). In the salt (2) there are two formula units in the asymmetric unit with one cation showing the cis and the other showing the tram conformation.