Computational study on the donor-adducts of phosphinidene complexes

The bonding of adducts between electron donors (D), such as NH3 and PH3, with phosphinidenes RP: (R = H, CH3, NH2, PH2, PF2) was examined using density functional theory calculations. The structures were optimized at the B3LYP/6-311++G∗∗ level of theory. The main interest of this work is to find the appropriate donor that can stabilize the phosphinidene. Accordingly, the magnitude of bond strength correlates well with the difference in ionization potential (ΔIP) of the orbitals involved in the D−P interaction.