Toward P-heterocyclic carbenes: Synthetic efforts from amine precursors

CHED 512

Wassim F Lebbos, wassim17@comcast.net, Kurtis M Biggs, kurtis.m.biggs@enc.edu, and Joseph E Williams, joseph.e.williams@enc.edu. Department of Chemistry, Eastern Nazarene College, 23 East Elm Ave, Quincy, MA 02170
P-heterocyclic carbenes (PHC's) belong to a family of potentially reactive species whose catalytic properties are unknown experimentally despite theoritical predictions attesting to their potential catalytic activity as compared to their counterparts the N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHC's). Though the progress made in the field of NHC's is tremendous, PHC's have been relatively unexplored due to a dearth of available synthetic routes. Precursors towards building a novel family of PHC's have been prepared. The synthetic route involves the facile preparation of aromatic amides, their reaction with phosphines and a short series of steps that is ongoing which should result in PHC's.