Structural investigations of phosphorus–nitrogen compounds. 4. Steric and electronic effects in dibenzylamino derivatives of hexachlorocyclotriphosphazatriene and 4,4,6,6-tetrachloro-2,2-diphenylcyclotriphosphazatriene

A systematic study is presented on the products of aminolysis of N3P3Cl6 (1) and N3P3Ph2Cl4 (4) with dibenzylamine. Two series of mono- and disubstituted derivatives of compounds (1) and (4), namely N3P3Cl5[N(CH2Ph)2] (2) and N3P3Cl4[N(CH2Ph)2]2 (3) and N3P3Ph2Cl3[N(CH2Ph)2] (5) and N3P3Ph2Cl2[N(CH2Ph)2]2 (6) [where (2), (3), (5) and (6) are new structures], are investigated in order to determine whether steric or electronic effects prevail in the formation of dibenzylamino-substituted cyclophosphazenes. The influence of an electron-releasing group (i.e. phenyl) on the stereochemistry and degree of substitution of the product is analysed by comparison of the above two series. The difference in unsymmetrically substituted endocyclic P—N bond lengths, Δ, is used as a measure of the degree of the electronic contribution, in combination with basicity constants, to quantify the degree of the electron-releasing capacity of the R group. In order to compare geminal versus non-geminal substitution, a difunctional secondary amine was used to form the compound N3P3Cl4[NMe(CH2)3NMe] (7) (a reinvestigation) for inclusion in this study. It is shown that electron-releasing groups have a greater effect on the lengthening of P—Cl bonds as opposed to endocyclic P—N bonds and that this effect is greater in the non-geminal PRCl case than for geminal PCl2. However, steric effects are shown to be dominant in the reactions of dibenzylamine with N3P3 derivatives, with a disposition to a trans stereochemistry in bisdibenzylamino derivatives.