Copper(I) chloride cluster complexes with pentaphenyl-cyclopentaphosphane as ligand

Pentaphenylcyclopentaphosphane, c-(P5Ph5) is conviently prepared from PhPCl2 and thermally activated zinc powder in thf. Hydrolysis Of c-(P5Ph5) in the presence of ZnCl, gives to an equimolar distribution of PhPH2, PhP(=O)H-2, and PhP(=O)(OH)H. Reaction Of c-(P5Ph5) with (CuCl)-Cl-I leads to the tetranuclear copper(l) chloride complex [Cu-4(mu(4)-Cl)(2)(mu(2)-Cl)(2){c-(P5Ph5)}(2)] with a CU4(mu(4)-Cl)(2)(mu(2)-Cl)(2) cluster core and the hexanuclear [Cu-6(mu(3)-Cl)(2)(mu(2)-Cl)(2) {c-(P5Ph5)}(2)(thf(2)]. Hydrolysis of the copper c-(P5Ph5) complexes leads to significantly higher amounts of the primary phosphane oxide PhP(=O)H-2.