3.01 | Phosphines

Sunday April 10th 2022 | In this lesson we discuss the basic properties of phosphines. In the first part we will look at the electronic properties of phosphines by means of the Tollman parameter. We will learn how these parameters are measured via IR spectroscopy of the corresponding nickel carbonyl complexes. We will also look at the two main contributors of these electronic properties namely: sigma-donation and pi-back donation, and how one can distinguish between the two. At the end of the lecture we will look at some steric properties, mainly their cone angle and bite angle, which are important contributors for mono-dentate and bi-dendate ligands. We concluded that the bite-angle not only has a steric effect, but also contain an electronic effect by reorganization of the involved molecular orbitals.

The video to the lecture can be found below