Aromaticity/antiaromaticity of phospha-analogues of carbocyclic ions: A DFT investigation

Accurate Ring Strain Energies of Unsaturated Three-Membered Heterocycles with One Group 13-16 Element

High-quality ring strain energy (RSE) data for 1H-unsaturated (CH)₂X parent rings, where X is a group 13–16 element, are reported in addition to the 2H-isomers of the pnictogenirene rings. RSE data are obtained from appropriate homosdesmotic reactions and calculated at the DLPNO-CCSD(T)/def2-TZVPP//B3LYP-D3/def2-TZVP(ecp) level. 1H-Tallirene and 1H-plumbirene have unique donor–acceptor structures between an acetylene π(CC) orbital and an empty p orbital of a metallylene subunit (a Dewar–Chatt–Duncanson description) and therefore cannot be described as proper rings but as pseudocyclic structures. Also, 1H-indirene and 1H-oxirene lack ring critical points and constitute borderline cases of pseudorings. 1H-Unsaturated rings exhibit enhanced RSE compared to their saturated homologues. The mechanism of ring strain relaxation by increasing the s character in the lone pair (LP) of group 15–16 elements is remarkable and increases on descending the groups. Furthermore, RSE is affected by the aromatic character of group 13 rings and certain aromatic or antiaromatic character in group 14 or 15–16 rings, respectively, which tend to vanish on descending the group as shown by NICS(1) values. 2H-Unsaturated rings were found only for group 15 elements (although only 2H-azirine shows a proper cyclic structure) and displayed lower RSE (higher stability) than the corresponding 1H-isomers.

Accurate ring strain energies (RSE) are calculated for three-membered 1H-unsaturated rings containing a 13−16 group element and group 15 2H-isomers. The presence or absence of lone pairs at the heteroatom and the existence of intrinsic or residual (anti)aromaticity were shown to affect the RSE.

Mechanistic details of metal-free cyclization reaction of organophosphorus oxide with alkynes mediated by 2,6-lutidine and Tf2 O

Theoretical investigations have elucidated the mechanism of metal-free electrophilic phosphinative cyclization of alkynes reaction reported by Miura and coworkers. Two competitive mechanisms I and II were explored without or with 2,6-lutidine. Both of I and II involve transformation of P(V) to P(III), electrophilic addition, ring opening and cyclization/cyclization, hydrogen-transfer, and oxidation. The rate-determining step of mechanism I and competitive less-step II is electrophilic [2 + 1] cycloaddition and electrophilic addition via single CP bond formation with activation barrier of 13.5 and 10.6 kcal/mol, respectively. Our calculation results suggested that the cumulative effect of the isomer of 2,6-lutidine and Tf₂ O as well as TfO^- affects the title reaction to some extent, and simultaneously activates key reaction sites and reverses the polarities of them via the formation of abundant noncovalent interactions to decrease activation barriers of TSs. In addition, the effects of two series substituents on reactivity of phosphine oxide were investigated. Therefore, our study will serve as useful guidance for more efficient metal-free synthesis of organophosphorus compounds mediated by pyridine reagents.