Synthesis and reactivity of perhalogenated acyclic and metallacyclic tantalum(V) phosphoraniminato complexes: discovery of an unexpected ligand coupling reaction to form the novel phosphazenium salt.

The reaction of TaCl5 with a single equivalent of Cl3P=NSiMe3 resulted in the isolation of the perhalogenated (phosphoraniminato) tantalum(V) complex TaCl4(N=PCl3) (1). Reaction of 1 with an excess of THF and subsequent cooling produced crystals of TaCl4(N=PCl3)(THF) (1.THF), which possesses a distorted octahedral Ta center with a THF molecule coordinated trans to the phosphoraniminato ligand. The reaction of 1 with the aminophosphoranimine, (Me3Si)2NPCl2=NSiMe3, resulted in a [3 + 1] cyclocondensation reaction to form the metallacyclic complex, TaCl3(N=PCl3)[N(SiMe3)PCl2N(SiMe3)] (2), which contains a TaNPN four-membered ring and a phosphoraniminato ligand (N=PCl3). The analogous [3 + 1] cyclocondensation reaction between (Me3Si)2NPCl2=NSiMe3 and TaCl5 led to the isolation of TaCl4[N(SiMe3)PCl2N(SiMe3)] (3). An attempt to cleave the NPN ligand from the Ta center in 2 via protonolysis with HCl led to an unusual phosphoraniminato ligand coupling reaction to yield the novel phosphazenium salt [N(PCl2NH2)2][TaCl6] (4). All new compounds (1.THF and complexes 1-4) were characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction.