Understanding the Nature and Properties of Hydrogen-Hydrogen Bonds: The Stability of a Bulky Phosphatetrahedrane as a Case Study

Recently, the first mixed C/P phosphatetrahedranes (tBuC)3P and (tBuCP)2 were reported. Unlike (tBuCP)2, (tBuC)3P exhibits remarkable thermal stability, which can be partially attributed to a network of nine hydrogen-hydrogen bonds (HHBs) localized between the tert-butyl substituents. The stabilizing contribution arising from this network of HHBs was obtained from local energy decomposition (LED) analysis calculated at the domain-based local pair natural orbital CCSD(T) (DLPNO-CCSD(T)) level of theory. These calculations suggest that each HHB contributes approximately-0.7 kcal/mol of stabilization; however, the net stabilization energy likely lies between-0.25 and-0.5 kcal/mol because of steric repulsion. Spatial analysis of the London dispersion energy via a dispersion interaction density (DID) plot reveals that the DID surface is localized at key C-H groups involved in HHBs, consistent with London dispersion interactions predominantly arising from HHBs. In addition, we present a computed mechanism that supports a phosphinidenoid species as a key reaction intermediate in the synthesis of (tBuC)3P.