Source of materialTo a solution of 0.06 g (0.00014 mmol) triphenylphosphine, 0.173 g (1.0 mmol) N-phenylmaleimide and 0.201 g (1.5 mmol) 1-aminobenzotriazole in CH 2Cl2 (5 ml), 0.666 g (1.5 mmol) lead tetraacetate (LTA) with 5 ml CH 2Cl2 was added dropwise. After stirred at room temperature during 30 min, concentrated and then separated by flash chromatography on a silica gel column with petroleum ether / ethyl acetate as eluent. The title compound is one of the products (yield 2.4 %; m.p. 526 K).
DiscussionPhosphonium ylides play an important role in the Wittig reaction and transition metal-catalyzed reactions in which the phosphines act as ligands, the nucleophilic tertiary phosphine adds to the triple bond of an electron-deficient alkyne first and finally eliminates from the reaction product after a series of transformations [1][2][3][4][5]. The tertiary phosphine plays the role of a catalyst [6,7]. In our recently experiments, the title compound was synthesized unexpectedly when we used triphenylphosphine as a catalyst to react with N-phenylmaleimide. In this reaction, the tertiary phosphine was not eliminated and acted as reactant. Similar to [8,9] the reaction mechanism keeps still unknown. The interplanar angles beween the maleimide ring and the three phenyl rings are 87.6(4)°, 68.1(7)°, 64.6(1)°. The dihedral angle between the maleimide ring and the N-phenyl group is 49.9(6)°.The bond distance of P-C27 2.738(2) Å, is a little shorter than normal distance of P-C bond (2.80 Å) [10].