Isolating an elusive phosphatetrahedrane
(PHYSorg.com Chemistry)

A research team in the Department of Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge U.S., explored a synthetic pathway to generate a phosphatetrahedrane framework. During the synthetic route, the team replaced a single carbon vertex with another p-block element within a highly strained tetrahedrane molecule. Highly strained molecules possess unusually acute bond angles at carbon and are species of high energy. In order to replace a single carbon vertex for less strain in this work, Martin-Louis Y. Riu and colleagues selected phosphorous due to its stable, tetrahedral molecular form. They accomplished the task through dehydrofluorination of fluorophosphine [H(F)P(CtBu)3] generated during the synthetic route. The team isolated a 19 percent yield of the Tri-tert-butyl phosphatetrahedrane [P(CtBu)3] product of interest as a low-melting, volatile and colorless solid. They characterized the product spectroscopically and with single-crystal X-ray diffraction to confirm the tetrahedral nature of the molecule`s PC3 core and noted the unexpected thermal stability of the molecule.