Click reactions of 2H-azaphosphirene chromium and molybdenum complexes and a surprisingly facile access to a 2H-1,4,2-diazaphosphole derivative

Ring expansion reactions of 2H-azaphosphirene chromium and molybdenum complexes 1a,b with dimethyl cyanamide, triflic acid, and, subsequently at ambient temperature, with triethylamine gave a mixture of the respective 2H-1,4,2-diazaphosphole complex 2a,b and the non-ligated heterocycle 3. If the deprotonation with NEt₃ was carried out at low temperature, the selective formation of complexes 2a,b was observed, which were isolated in excellent yields and fully characterized (including single-crystal X-ray crystallography). Experimental and computational results revealed that the P, Cr and P, Mo bonds of 2H-1,4,2-diazaphosphole complexes are significantly weakened upon N-protonation of the heterocyclic ligand. When mixtures of 1a,b, TfOH, and Me₂NCN were warmed to ambient temperature, the primarily formed N-protonated of 2H-1,4,2-diazaphosphole complexes 4a,b could be observed by ³¹P NMR spectroscopy. The latter underwent decomplexation to give the N-protonated free ligand 5, which could be isolated and characterized by multinuclear NMR experiments. The neutral non-ligated heterocycle 3 was isolated from a one-pot reaction of 1b with TfOH and Me₂NCN by adding NEt₃ to a solution of intermediately formed 5.