1,1,2,2-Tetra-kis(di-o-tolyl-phosphino)ethane

Abstract

The complete molecule of title compound, C(58)H(58)P(4), is generated by a crystallographic twofold rotation axis that passes through the center of the C(methine)-C(methine) bond of length 1.582 (4) Å. The C-P bond lengths are 1.8824 (19) and 1.8991 (19) Å. The P-C-P angle of 109.69 (9)° is essentially equal to the expected value of 109.5° for a tetra-hedral C atom. Although the C(methine)-P-C(aromatic) bond angles range from 102.67 (9) to 107.04 (9)°, the C(aromatic)-P-C(aromatic) bond angles of 96.72 (9) and 97.29 (9)° are significantly smaller. The steric demands of the o-tolyl groups cause deviations from the bond lengths and angles reported for its phenyl analog.

Fig. 1.

Molecular structure of the title compound showing 35% probability ellipsoids for non-H atoms and circles of arbitrary size for H atoms. The unlabeled atoms are related to the labeled atoms by the symmetry operator (1 - x, y, 0.5 - z).