Non-Metal-Catalyzed Heterodehydrocoupling of Phosphines and Hydrosilanes: Mechanistic Studies of B(C6F5)3-Mediated Formation of P-Si Bonds.

Non-metal-catalyzed heterodehydrocoupling of primary and secondary phosphines (R1R2PH, R2 = H or R1) with hydrosilanes (R3R4R5SiH, R4, R5 = H or R3) to produce synthetically useful silylphosphines (R1R2P-SiR3R4R5) has been achieved using B(C6F5)3 as the catalyst (10 mol %, 100 °C). Kinetic studies demonstrated that the reaction is first-order in hydrosilane and B(C6F5)3 but zero-order in phosphine. Control experiments, DFT calculations, and DOSY NMR studies suggest that a R1R2HP·B(C6F5)3 adduct is initially formed and undergoes partial dissociation to form an "encounter complex". The latter mediates frustrated Lewis pair type Si-H bond activation of the silane substrates. We also found that B(C6F5)3 catalyzes the homodehydrocoupling of primary phosphines to form cyclic phosphine rings and the first example of a non-metal-catalyzed hydrosilylation of P-P bonds to produce silylphosphines (R1R2P-SiR3R4R5). Moreover, the introduction of PhCN to the reactions involving secondary phosphines with hydrosilanes allowed the heterodehydrocoupling reaction to proceed efficiently under much milder conditions (1.0 mol % B(C6F5)3 at 25 °C). Mechanistic studies, as well as DFT calculations, revealed that PhCN plays a key mechanistic role in facilitating the dehydrocoupling reactions rather than simply functioning as H2-acceptor.