Accessing Frustrated Lewis Pair Chemistry from a Spectroscopically Stable and Classical Lewis Acid-Base Adduct.

B(C F ) and P(MeNCH CH ) N form a classical Lewis adduct, (C F ) BP(MeNCH CH ) N. Although (C F ) BP(MeNCH CH ) N does not exhibit spectroscopic evidence of dissociation into its constituent acid and base, products of frustrated Lewis pair (FLP) addition reactions are seen with PhNCO, PhCH N , PhNSO, and CO . Computational studies show that thermal access to the dissociated acid and base permits FLP reactivity to proceed.