1‐Phosphabicyclo[2.2.1]heptane

1‐Phosphabicyclo2.2.1]heptanes Exo‐endo‐ and exo‐exo‐2.6‐dimethyl‐1‐phosphabicyclo 2.2.1]heptane have been obtained by cyclization of 2‐methyl‐4‐(2‐propenyl)phospholane in the presence of the complex base, sodium salt of diethylenglycolmonoethylether ‐ sodium amide in THF (NAMEDEG). The bicyclic phosphanes are characterized by reac‐tions with selenium, sulfur, (CH₃)₂SeO, CH₃I and HSO₃F, respectively, elemental analysis, X‐ray crystal structure analysis as well as ¹H, ¹³C, ³¹P NMR spectral measurements. The steric demand of these phosphanes as complex ligands has been estimated from the P, H coupling constants of the phosphonium fluorosulphates according to the Tolman model. The phosphane selenides were found to display the lowest values for the ¹J(Se, P) coupling constant, found up to now for alicyclic and cyclic aliphatic tertiary phosphane selenides. The ⁿJ(P, H)‐ and ⁿJ(H, H)_{n=2, 3} coupling constants have been extracted from the proton spectra at 600 MHz by computerized analysis.