A stabilized beta-oxaphosphoniumbetaine: an elusive zwitterion.

A beta-oxaphosphoniumbetaine stabilized by two tert-butyl groups at the phosphonium part of the betaine and two trifluoromethyl groups at the carbon adjoined to the oxa part of the betaine was isolated and structurally characterized. Additional stabilization results from the solvation of the betaine by a parent phosphonium salt, as in 4, or by protonation with methanol, as in 10. According to X-ray analysis, the betaine exhibits a sterically strained "gauche" conformeric form, with torsion angles in the P-C-C-O moiety of 32.2 degrees for 4 and 28.1 degrees for 10. The P...O separations of 3.121 A for 4 and 3.086 A for 10 are just under the sum of the O and P van der Waals radii (3.32 A). The fast H/D exchange of alpha hydrogen atoms to the phosphonium center was observed in the solution of 10 in deuterium oxide and MeOH-d4. The beta-oxaphosphoniumbetaine has long been suspected as an intermediate in the Wittig reaction, but this is the first time a stabilized derivative has been isolated.