(C2F5)2PNEt2 represents an excellent starting material for the selective synthesis of bis(pentafluoroethyl)phosphane derivatives. The moderately air‐sensitive aminophosphane is accessible on a multi‐gram scale by treating Cl2PNEt2 with C2F5Li. Treatment with gaseous HCl or HBr yielded the corresponding phosphane halides (C2F5)2PCl and the so far unknown (C2F5)2PBr in good yields. The hitherto unknown (C2F5)2PF was obtained by treating (C2F5)2PBr with excess antimony trifluoride. Treatment of (C2F5)2PCl with Bu3SnH led to the quantitative formation of (C2F5)2PH. Deprotonation formally yielded the (C2F5)2P– anion in a form that was stabilized by coordination to mercury ions to form the complex [Hg{P(C2F5)2}2(dppe)]. An improved high‐yielding synthesis of (C2F5)2POH was achieved by treating (C2F5)2PNEt2 with p‐toluenesulfonic acid. The gas‐phase structures of (C2F5)2PH and (C2F5)2POH were determined by electron diffraction. The vibrational corrections employed in the data analysis of the diffraction data were derived from molecular dynamics calculations. Both compounds exist in the gas phase mostly as C1‐symmetric cis,cis conformers with regard the orientation of the C2F5 groups relative to the functional groups H and OH. The presence of a second conformer at ambient temperature is likely in both cases. The refined amounts of dominant conformers are 94(6) and 85(6) % for (C2F5)2PH and (C2F5)2POH, respectively. The conformational behaviour was further explored by potential energy surface scans based on DFT calculations. Important experimental structural parameters for the most stable conformers are re(P–C)average = 1.884(3) Å for (C2F5)2PH and re(P–C)average = 1.894(4) Å and re(P–O) = 1.582(3) Å for (C2F5)2POH. The different coordination properties of (C2F5)3P, (C2F5)2POH, (CF3)3P and (CF3)2POH were evaluated by complex formation with [Ni(CO)4]: the maximum achievable number of CO ligands substituted by (C2F5)3P is 1, by (C2F5)2POH is 2, by (CF3)3P is 3 and by the smallest ligand (CF3)2POH is 4.

The unusual form of a phosphinous acid can be stabilized by strongly electron‐withdrawing substituents such as trifluoromethyl and pentafluoroethyl groups. The less electron‐withdrawing pentafluorophenyl group favors the phosphane oxide tautomer (Rf)2P(O)H in the solid state, whereas in solution a solvent‐dependent equilibrium with the phosphinous acid tautomer (Rf)2POH is observed. The increasing donating ability of the solvent leads to an increasing amount of the corresponding phosphinous acid tautomer. In accord with quantum chemical calculations, the electron‐withdrawing effects of the p‐tetrafluoropyridyl and 2,4‐bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl groups exceed the pentafluorophenyl group and should therefore be ideally suited to stabilize the corresponding phosphinous acid tautomer (Rf)2POH. The syntheses of bis(tetrafluoropyridyl)‐ and bis[2,4‐bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]phosphane oxide enabled the investigation of the solvent‐dependent tautomerism by NMR spectroscopy. Introduction of the tetrafluoropyridyl group shifts the tautomeric equilibrium significantly towards the phosphinous acid. Surprisingly, the comparably electron‐withdrawing but more bulky 2,4‐bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl group favors the oxide tautomer. The experimental results have been confirmed by DFT calculations. In summary, electron‐withdrawing substituents stabilize the phosphinous acid tautomer, whereas it is destabilized by space‐demanding groups by an increased C–P–C angle.

The reaction of the sterically shielded phosphane derivative, dichlorodiethylaminophosphane, Cl 2 PNEt 2 , with an excess of a mixture of 2,6-bis(trifluoromethyl) and 2,4-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl lithium gives bis[2,4-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]diethylaminophosphane, [2,4-(CF 3 ) 2 C 6 H 3 ] 2 PNEt 2 , in 72 % yield as a colourless solid, while 2,6-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl lithium remains unchanged in solution. The amino derivative crystallizes in the monoclinic space group P2 1 /c (a 869.

Secondary phosphane oxides R 2 P(O)H are most frequently used as preligands for phosphinous acid R 2 POH (R = alkyl, aryl) transition-metal complexes, which are very efficient catalysts for cross-coupling reactions. To investigate the influence of electrondeficient substituents on the catalytic activity, the coordination properties of bis(trifluoromethyl)-, bis(pentafluoroethyl)-, and bis[2,4-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]phosphinous acid toward catalytically relevant metals, such as palladium and platinum, are studied. The novel phosphinous acid palladium complexes reveal a high catalytic activity in Heck and Suzuki cross-coupling reactions. Because of the strong dependence of these processes on the reaction conditions, a systematic solvent and base screening with 1-bromo-3-fluorobenzene and phenyl boronic acid as model reactants is performed. The most efficient solvent/base system consists of 2-propanol and potassium phosphate, providing a full conversion and a TON of around 10 000 after 20 h at room temperature with a catalyst loading of 0.01 mol % palladium. A catalyst loading of only 0.004 mol % palladium still leads to a nearly full conversion after 20 h at room temperature. During the catalytic reaction, the formation of the corresponding phosphinic acid R 2 P(O)OH is observed. Further investigations lead to the conclusion that palladium nanoparticles represent the catalytically active species. We also succeeded in the generation of palladium nanoparticles, which exhibit an extremely high catalytic activity in Suzuki cross-coupling reaction with TONs over 60 000 and TOFs larger than 40 000.

As recently shown, the introduction of pentafluoroethyl functionalities into silicon compounds is of general interest due to an enhanced Lewis acidity of the resulting species. By this means, the synthesis of previously inaccessible hypervalent silicon derivatives is enabled. While an easy access to tris(pentafluoroethyl)silanes has already been published, synthetic strategies for the selective preparation of bis derivatives are yet unknown. In this contribution, a convenient protocol for the synthesis of functional bis(pentafluoroethyl)silicon compounds is presented. These compounds represent precursors for the synthesis of pentafluoroethylated polysiloxanes. Furthermore, they prove to be resistant to oxonium cations, which is a key feature for the preparation of stable pentafluoroethylsilic acids. Treatment of dichlorodiphenoxysilane with in situ generated pentafluoroethyl lithium leads to the corresponding bis(pentafluoroethyl)silane in high yields. (C F ) Si(OPh) serves as a starting material for further functionalized bis(pentafluoroethyl)silanes. These silanes have been isolated and their reactivity towards N bases studied. The pronounced Lewis acidity of the obtained compounds has been documented by the formation of octahedral adducts with nitrogen donors such as 1,10-phenanthroline and acetonitrile.