Studies on the structure behavior of triphenyldichlorophosphorane in different solvents

Triphenyldichlorophosporane, which was prepared according to Appel reaction, was an efficient reagent for alkyl halide synthesis by virtue of having two replaceable groups on "pentavalent" phosphorus. The reaction of triphenylphosphine with hexachloroethane was investigated in different solvents and 31P NMR traced the processes of these reactions. As results, it was found that there was similar high coordinated phosphorus species formed in aromatic solvents and in ring ether type solvents, which had large 1J(P-C) (about 140 Hz) according to 13C NMR experiments. It is indicated that, for some solvent such as benzene or dioxane, solvent molecules might be locked in the high coordinated phosphorus compounds, which in turn would affect the triphenyl groups situated at the equatorial position.