Cationic imidazolium‐2‐phosphanes were obtained by the addition of a chlorophosphane (R2PCl, R = Ph, iPr or Cy) to 1,3‐dimethylimidazolium‐2‐carboxylate without the need for a purification step. An additional anion exchange reaction with KPF6 led to the corresponding halide‐free ligands in excellent yields. The molecular structure of one of them was examined both in the solid state and in solution. The lone pair of electrons on the phosphorus atom is not delocalised to the imidazolium fragment and thus remains available for further metal coordination. As such compounds can be described as phosphenium cations stabilised by a N‐heterocarbene donor base, the electronic properties of the Lewis acceptor phosphorus centre was evaluated upon nickel tricarbonyl coordination, and the properties are surprisingly similar to those found for phosphites. The stronger π‐acceptor character of these imidazolium‐2‐phosphanes relative to that of neutral tertiary phosphanes can thus explain the higher catalytic activities observed with the corresponding rhodium complexes in styrene hydroformylation reactions. Additionally, a preliminary study of platinum coordination chemistry indicated that the steric demand of 1,3‐dimethylimidazolium‐2‐phosphanes is comparable to mixed arylalkylphosphanes. (© Wiley‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2007)

The reaction between two 1,3-dialkylimidazolium-2-carboxylates 1a and 1b and two different dichlorophosphines (RPCl(2), with R = Ph and NEt(2)) led to new donor-stabilized phosphenium adducts. When the reaction was performed with the 1,3-dimethylimidazolium-2-carboxylate 1a and PhPCl(2) in a 2:1 ratio, the phosphine 4a, bearing two imidazolium moieties, was obtained and led to 5a, after an anion exchange reaction with KPF(6), the latter being fully characterized by an X-ray structure analysis. In similar conditions, the bis-imidazolium phosphine or phosphene-di-ium, 4b, which is analogous to 4a, has been obtained by the addition of PhPCl(2) to the 1-dodecyl-3-methylimidazolium-2-carboxylate 1b. However, by the use of dichloro(diethylamino)phosphine, (Et(2)N)PCl(2), instead of PhPCl(2), the reaction with 1a did not afford the biscationic phosphorus product 6a, an analogue to 4a, but, instead, the water-soluble mixed mono-imidazolium chlorophosphine 7a. Subsequently, additional kinetic experiments have been investigated to rationalize the different reactivities observed with imidazolium-2-carboxylates and the phosphorus halide derivatives. We, thus, found that the bis-imidazolium phosphine 4b was very rapidly formed in the above-mentioned reaction and was slowly converted, thereafter, back to the mixed mono-imidazolium chlorophosphine 8b in the presence of the residual starting dichlorophosphine. Additionally, the addition of PhPCl(2) to the phosphene-di-ium 4b represents, to our knowledge, the first example of a P-substituent exchange reaction involving a P-C bond formation in imidazolium phosphines. On the other hand, the air stability and the solubility of these new cationic functional phosphines in different media render such ligands very appealing in coordination chemistry for catalysis in mono- or biphasic media.