Chemical functionality of poly(methylenephosphine): phosphine-borane adducts and methylphosphonium ionomers.

The chemical functionality of poly(methylenephosphine) n-Bu[MesP-CPh2]nH (2) is examined in reactions with two isoelectronic species, namely BH3 and CH3+. The potential reactivity of polymer 2 is modelled by examining the reactivity of molecular phosphines bearing similar substituents as the polymer. In particular, the phosphine-borane adducts Mes(Me)P(BH3)-CPh2H (4a) and Mes(Me)P(BH3)-CPh2SiMe2H (4b) are prepared from the reaction of BH3.