Transient Dipnictyl Analogues of Acrylamides, R-E=E'-CONR2 , and a Related Diphosphadigalletane from Na[OCP] and (R2 N)2 ECl (E, E'=P, As, Ga).

The reaction of Na[OCP] with (R2 N)2 ECl (E=P or As; R=alkyl) granted direct access to transient amine-substituted diphospha- and arsaphospha-acrylamide analogues, (R2 N)E=P(CONR2 ) 1. Their facile formation allowed for a comprehensive reactivity study. Dimerization yielded the four-membered rings (R2 N)2 E2 P2 (CONR2 )2 , whereas in the presence of excess Na[OCP], a stepwise [2+2] cycloaddition occured, leading to the sodium salts of carboxotripnictides [(R2 N)EP2 CO(CONR2 )]- . These salts served as a reservoir of 1, either by extrusion of Na[OCP] or by reaction with the appropriate (R2 N)2 ECl, giving the [4+2]-cycloaddition products (R2 N)EP(C6 H10 )(CONR2 ) in the presence of 2,3-dimethylbutadiene. The formal conjugate addition product K[(tBuO)(R2 N)PP(CONR2 )] was obtained by reaction of Na[(R2 N)PP2 CO(CONR2 )] with tBuOK. In addition, a rare diphosphadigalletane with a ladder-type (R2 N)2 Ga2 P2 (CONR2 )2 core was isolated from the reaction of Na[OCP] with (R2 N)2 GaCl (R=alkyl). The unprecedented pnictogenyl carboxamide compounds were thoroughly characterized, including single-crystal X-ray structure determinations, and mechanisms for their formation were investigated by DFT calculations.