Redox Behavior of 2-Substituted 1,3-Benzoxaphospholes and 2,6-Substituted Benzo[1,2-d:4,5-d′]bisoxaphospholes

o-Hydroxyarylphosphanes: Strategies for Syntheses of Configurationally Stable, Electronically and Sterically Tunable Ambiphiles with Multiple Applications

o-Hydroxyarylphosphanes are fascinating compounds by their multiple-reactivity features, attributed to the ambident hard and soft Lewis- and also Brønstedt acid-base properties, wide tuning opportunities via backbone substituents with ±mesomeric and inductive, at P and in o-position to P and O also steric effects, and in addition, the configurational stability at three-valent phosphorus. Air sensitivity may be overcome by reversible protection with BH3 , but the easy oxidation to P(V)-compounds may also be used. Since the first reports on the title compounds ca. 50 years ago the multiple reactivity has led to versatile applications. This includes various P-E-O and P=C-O heterocycles, a multitude of O-substituted derivatives including acyl derivatives for traceless Staudinger couplings of biomolecules with labels or functional substituents, phosphane-phosphite ligands, which like the o-phosphanylphenols itself form a range of transition metal complexes and catalysts. Also main group metal complexes and (bi)arylphosphonium-organocatalysts are derived. Within this review the various strategies for the access of the starting materials are illuminated, including few hints to selected applications.

Controlling the Emissive Activity in Heterocyclic Systems Bearing C═P Bonds

The photophysical properties of a series of heteroatom substituted indoles are explored to identify chemical means to control their emissive activity. In particular, we consider impacts of changes in the conjugated backbone, where the C═N bonds of benzoxazoles are replaced by C═P bonds (benzoxaphospholes). The effects of extending the π-conjugation, incorporating various secondary heteroatoms (X-C═P), and enforcing planar rigidity are also examined. Our computational analysis explains the higher fluorescence efficiency observed with extended π-conjugation and highlights the importance of maintaining molecular planarity at both ground- and emissive-state geometries.

Insertion of sodium phosphaethynolate, Na[OCP], into a zirconium-benzyne complex

Reaction of the zirconium-benzyne complex [Cp₂Zr(PMe₃)(C₆H₄)] with sodium phosphaethynolate, Na[OCP], affords a zircono-phosphaalkene complex. Notably, unlike reactions of other transition metal complexes with Na[OCP] that yield the products of simple salt metathesis, this transformation represents novel Na[OCP] insertion chemistry and formation of an unusual solid state coordination polymer. The polymer is disrupted upon addition of Me₃SiCl to afford a silyl-capped dimer that retains the zirconophosphaalkene functionality. Protonation of either form of zirconophosphaalkenes results in the formation of benzoylphosphine, PhC([double bond, length as m-dash]O)PH₂.

A structure-property study toward π-extended phosphole chromophores with ambipolar redox properties

We report the synthesis of a series of π-extended dithienophospholes with phenyl or biphenyl terminal groups via Suzuki Miyaura cross-coupling procedures. The incorporation of the dithienophosphole core into the scaffold on oligophenylenes was found to lead to pronounced luminescence properties in solution and the solid state, the latter of which also responded to different solid-state morphologies, i.e., powder versus crystal. More importantly, the investigated molecular architectures also allowed — for the first time — the observation of ambipolar redox behavior of such species, with the biphenyl-extended species in particular showing quasi-reversible reduction and oxidation processes; the observed experimental features were correlated with computational density functional theory studies.

"Doping" pentacene with sp(2)-phosphorus atoms: towards high performance ambipolar semiconductors

Recent research progress in black phosphorus sheets strongly encourages us to employ pentacene as a parent system to systematically investigate how the "doping" of sp(2)-phosphorus atoms onto the backbone of pentacene influences its optical and charge transport properties. Our theoretical investigations proved that increasing the contribution of the pz atomic orbital of the sp(2)-phosphorus to the frontier molecular orbital of phosphapentacenes could significantly decrease both hole and electron reorganization energies and dramatically red-shift the absorption of pentacene. The record smallest hole and electron reorganization energies of 69.80 and 95.74 meV for heteropentacene derivatives were obtained. These results suggest that phosphapentacenes (or phosphaacenes) could be potential promising candidates to achieve both higher and balanced mobilities in organic field effect transistors and realize a better power conversion efficiency in organic photovoltaics.

A Convenient N-Arylation Route for Electron-Deficient Pyridines: The Case of π-Extended Electrochromic Phosphaviologens

A simple and representative procedure for the synthesis of N,N'-diarylated phosphaviologens directly from both electron-rich and electron-poor diaryliodonium salts and 2,7-diazadibenzophosphole oxide is reported. The latter are electron-deficient congeners of the widely utilized N,N'-disubstituted 4,4'-bipyridinium cations, also known as viologens, that proved to be inaccessible by the classical two-step route. The single-step preparation method for phosphaviologens described herein could be extended to genuine viologens but reached its limit when sterically demanding diaryliodonium salts were used. The studied phosphaviologens feature a significantly lowered reduction threshold as compared to all other (phospha)viologens known to date due to the combination of an extended π-system with an electron deficient phosphole core. In addition, a considerably smaller HOMO-LUMO gap was observed due to efficient π-delocalization across the phosphaviologen core, as well as the N-aryl substituents, which was corroborated by quantum chemical calculations. Detailed characterizations of the singly reduced radical species by EPR spectroscopy and DFT calculations verified delocalization of the radical over the extended π-system. Finally, to gain deeper insight into the suitability of the new compounds as electroactive and electrochromic materials, multicolored proof-of-concept electrochomic devices were manufactured.

Insights on the design and electron-acceptor properties of conjugated organophosphorus materials

The development of conjugated organic materials has become a rapidly evolving field of research, particularly with a view toward practical applications in so-called organic electronics that encompass a variety of device types, such as OLEDs, OPVs, and OFETs. Almost all of these devices minimally require the presence of electron-donor and -acceptor components that act as p- and n-type semiconductors, respectively. Research over the past two decades has shown that while there is an abundant resource of organic p-type materials, suitable n-type species are few and far between. To overcome this severe bottleneck for the further development of organic electronics, researchers have identified organo-main-group avenues as valuable alternatives toward organic electron-acceptor materials that may ultimately be used as n-type components in practical devices. One particular element of interest in this context is phosphorus, which at first glance may not necessarily suggest such properties. In this Account, I provide detailed insights on the origin of the electron-acceptor properties of organophosphorus-based conjugated materials and include an overview of important molecular species that have been developed by my group and others. To this end, I explain that the electron-acceptor properties of conjugated organophosphorus materials originate from an interaction known as negative hyperconjugation. While this particular interaction creates a simply inductively withdrawing phosphoryl substituent for π-conjugated scaffolds, incorporation of a phosphorus atom as an integral part of a cyclic substructure within a π-conjugated system provides a much more complex, versatile, and consequently highly valuable tool for the tuning of the electron-acceptor properties of the materials. Notably, the degree of negative hyperconjugation can effectively be tailored in various ways via simple substitution at the phosphorus center. This is now well established for phosphole-based molecular materials, in which the electron-acceptor properties are also mirrored by the degree of antiaromaticity of the system. Particularly, fused and π-extended phosphole materials show appreciable electron-acceptor properties, evident in low reduction potentials and corresponding LUMO levels. But these features do not always translate into powerful n-type materials. My group and others have thus recently been focusing on molecular organophosphorus scaffolds that also involve incorporation of imino or carbonyl groups, next to the incorporation of low coordinate phosphorus centers, to achieve superior electron-acceptor features. This state-of-the-art research has confirmed the great potential of the organophosphorus route toward powerful electron-acceptor materials, but further work is required to also establish these species as functional n-type materials.

Luminescent materials containing multiple benzoxaphosphole units

A series of bisbenzoxaphospholes and a trisbenzoxaphosphole have been prepared and characterized.