Theoretical Study of Phosphoryl Transfer Reactions

The energetics and transition state (TS) structures of the reactions of six substrates, $R_1R_2P$(=O or S)Cl-type where $R_1=R_2$=Me and/or MeO, with ammonia in acetonitrile are theoretically investigated at the level of CPCM-MP2/6-31+G(d) and CPCM-MP2/6-311+G(3df,2p). The degrees of distortion of TS from the ideal trigonal bipyramidal pentacoordinate, ${\Delta}{{\delta}}_{{\neq}b}$ for a backside and ${\Delta}{{\delta}}_{{\neq}f}$ for a frontside attack, are calculated. The results of calculation suggest that the feasibility of a frontside attack for P=S is greater than that for P=O system when the two ligands, $R_1$ and $R_2$, becomes larger. The experimental and calculated results of anilinolyses of $R_1R_2P$(=O or S)Cl-type show the consistent tendencies.