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A series of glycoluril derivatives have been synthesized in water at room temperature from urea and 1,2-dicarbonyl compounds in the presence of phosphoric anhydride. The reaction time is about 10 minutes using one mole of 1,2-dicarbonyl compound, three moles of urea, and half mole of P4O10, but the reaction occurs also, even if with longer reaction times, with very small amounts of P4O10 which is recovered at the end of reactions. In fact, several catalytic turnovers can be performed using the same reaction solution obtained after separation by simple filtration of the glycolurils.

For understanding the mechanism involved in the Wittig reaction, it is important to know the factors which influence the stability of 1,2-oxaphosphetane intermediates with pentacoordinate phosphorus; in these intermediates, the steric factor plays a predominant role. Studying the Wittig reaction between nonstabilized ylides and different aldehydes, we noted that the stereochemical outcome driving toward Z-olefin formation was influenced only by different steric factors. The proposed mechanism differs from those previously reported because it underlines the fundamental role of the two cis/trans oxaphosphetane intermediates with the oxygen atom in equatorial position.

Phospha-Michael additions of a series of methylene-bridged phosphorus bidentate nucleophiles to 1,2-diaza-1,3-dienes gave monoadducts and bisadducts in high yields under mild conditions. In particular, a series of new ylides and symmetrical diylides have been obtained from bis(diphenyl)phosphanes. The use of diphenylphosphanylamino derivatives gave, through phospha-Michael addition, ylide intermediates that underwent spontaneous intramolecular attack by the amino group belonging to the Michael donor reagent moiety, thus giving access to new heterocycles.

New arsenic-, antimony- and bismuth-donor reagents are used in a one-pot synthesis of cyclic arsanes, stibanes and bismutanes through a procedure in which the simultaneous formation of three C As, C Sb or C Bi bonds is achieved. At the end of the reaction, the element-donor reagent can be easily re-formed in situ and recycled, as in a catalytic process.

The reaction of 1,2-diaza-1,3-butadienes with dialkyl phenylphosphonites under solvent-free conditions proceeds via zwitterionic intermediate and gives, by precipitation, the stable ylidic α-phosphanylidene-hydrazones that, in turn, can be transformed into the corresponding 3-phenyl-2 H -1,2,3λ 5 -diazaphospholes. The latter compounds are converted by hydrolytic cleavage in methanol–water (95:5) into E -hydrazonophosphonates that are useful for the preparation of the corresponding β-ketophosphonates and 4-[alkoxy(phenyl)phosphoryl]-1,2-diaza-1,3-butadienes. These peculiar 1,2-diaza-1,3-butadienes, bearing an alkoxy(phenyl)phosphoryl group on the carbon atom in position 4 are also able to add different nucleophiles, such as methanol or thiourea, giving 2-[alkoxy(phenyl)phosphoryl]-2-methoxyhydrazones and 5-phosphinate-substituted thiazol-4-ones, respectively.

Treatment, at room temperature, of benzothiadiphosphole 1 with BrMg(CH2)5MgBr gives intermediate A, which was allowed to stand for about 3 h at room temperature. The subsequent addition of RMgX to the reaction mixture and the final treatment with an excess of S8 and water affords the dithiaphosphepine sulfide 8 in good yields. The structure of this new heterocyclic system, containing both an SS unit and a PS group, is confirmed by an single crystal X-ray structure determination. If the reaction is carried out without final treatment with sulfur we obtain, using PhMgBr as mono-Grignard reagent, the corresponding ring-opened product 11b, which can be easily transformed into the corresponding ring-opened sulfide 12b by simple treatment with elemental sulfur. Further addition of sulfur to 12b gives quantitatively the cyclic dithiaphosphepine sulfide 8b. The two phosphanethiols 11b and 12b are of considerable interest. In fact, recently, attention has increasingly been paid to the coordination chemistry of polydentate ligands incorporating both thiolate and tertiary phosphine groups, also known as SPS pincer ligands. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heteroatom Chem 16:339–345, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/hc.20099

[structures: see text] The present article describes the reaction between 1,2-diaza-1,3-butadienes and trialkyl phosphites, under an atmosphere of nitrogen and under solvent-free conditions, to give alkyl 3,3-dialkoxy-2H-1,2,3lambda5-diazaphosphole-4-carboxylates that, in turn, are converted into corresponding E-hydrazonophosphonates by treatment with THF:water (95:5). These latter compounds are obtained directly by the reaction of 1,2-diaza-1,3-butadienes with trialkyl phosphites in the presence of air. These compounds are useful for the further preparation of dialkyl (5-methyl-3-oxo-2,3-dihydro-1H-4-pyrazolyl)phosphonates and 2-dialkoxyphosphoryl-1,2,3-thiadiazoles.