Introduction Triphenylphosphine dibromide (TPPDB, PPh3 Br2 ),
originally synthesized by Horner and his co-workers,
[¹ ]
has shown significant
synthetic versatility over the course of the last decades in organic
synthesis. It has been used extensively in various organic transformations,
such as bromination of alcohols, phenols, and enols, cleavage of ethers
and acetals to alkyl bromides, cyclization of β- and γ-amino
alcohols to aziridines and azetidines, conversion of carboxylic
acid derivatives into acyl bromides, bromination or dehydration
of carboxamide groups and epoxide opening to vicinal dibromides.
[² ]
Some of these resulting compounds
have been reused in total syntheses of complex natural products
during the final steps. Thus, the chemoselectivity and predictable
reactivity of triphenylphosphine dibromide makes it a noteworthy
and useful reagent. It also finds application in the synthesis of ¹8 F-4-fluorobenzyltriphenylphosphonium
bromide, a new class of positron-emitting lipophilic cations, acting
as myocardial per fusion PET tracers.
[³ ]
Triphenylphosphine dibromide is a colorless crystalline hygroscopic
solid (mp 235 ˚C) that is readily prepared before
use by addition of an equimolar amount of bromine to triphenylphosphine
in anhydrous diethyl ether at 0 ˚C (Scheme
[¹ ]
).
[4 ]
It
is a molecular compound in the solid state, but ionises in dichloromethane
to form [Ph3 PBr]+ Br- .
[5 ]
Scheme 1