C‑Trifluoromethyl-Substituted 1,2-Oxaphosphetane Complexes: Synthetic and Structural Study

Recently, the first synthetic route to 1,2-oxaphosphetane complexes was described, but the formation of too many isomers was a clear drawback and hampered further studies. Herein, we present significant advances with this problem using trifluoromethyl epoxide (4), 1,1′-bis­(trifluoromethyl) epoxide (5), and differently substituted Li/Cl phosphinidenoid complexes 1–3 (R = CH­(SiMe3)2, CPh3, C5Me5), thus giving 1,2-oxaphosphetane complexes 6–10 with high selectivity.