Organophosphorus compounds of various types are among the most important classes of ligands in the coordination chemistry of the transition elements. This is particularly true for the tertiary phosphines R
3
P, which are known to stabilize complexes of metals in low oxidation states, while secondary and primary phosphines, R
2
HP and RPH
2
, are less common. The donor properties and the stereochemistry can be tuned by using carefully designed substitution patterns. More recently, organophosphorus compounds with low‐coordinate phosphorus atoms have also been employed as ligands in metal complexes. These include mainly phosphaalkenes and phosphaalkynes, phosphinidenes, diphosphenes, phosphinines, phosphonium cations, and even elemental phosphorus.