Crystalline, room-temperature stable phosphine–SO2 adducts: generation of sulfur monoxide from sulfur dioxide

Abstract

The particularly basic phosphines 1a–c readily form isolable, zwitterionic Lewis base adducts with SO₂ that were fully characterized including by X-ray diffraction studies. Computational and reactivity studies show that these adducts readily release SO at room temperature driven by the formation of the corresponding phosphine oxides.