Unravelling Lawesson's reagent: the structure of monomeric (4-methoxyphenyl)phosphine disulfide.

We describe the isolation as well as IR and UV/Vis spectroscopic characterization of (4-methoxyphenyl)phosphine disulfide in argon matrices at 10 K. The title compound proved to be highly photolabile; irradiation with UV light (λ = 334 nm) led to rearrangement to the equally unreported 3-(4-methoxyphenyl)-1,2,3-dithiaphosphirane. Photoreversion can be achieved upon irradiation at λ = 465 nm.