Naked phosphorus ligands

Naked (substituent-free) P-n ligands show impressive parallels to organic, organometallic, as well as solid-state chemistry and they are of further in terest for theoreticians. Within the coordination sphere of (CpM)-M-R fragm ents the all-phosphorus analogues of the carbocycles (CH)(n), n = 3-6, can be stabilized in form of sandwich and triple-decker sandwich complexes. The reaction diversity of these novel classes of compounds with P-n ligands is exemplarily demonstrated with [Cp*Fe(eta (5)-P-5)]. Complexes with P-1-P-8, P-10-P-12, and P-14 ligands show a wide variety of structures, where often motifs of Hittorf phosphorus can be realized. There is evidence that successive P-P bond cleavage of the mostly used P-n sourc e, white phosphorus (P-4), plays an important role with respect to mechanis tic aspects.