Prior to the inception of the work described herein, only two silylphosphines had been reported,;. e., SiHsPH2 and (SiH3) aP, described by Fritz and Emeleus, respectively. Quite recently, trimethylsilyldiphenylphosphine, the first reported organosilylphosphine, was obtained by Kuchen and Buchwald2 by reaction of trimethylchlorosilane with the sodium cleavage product of tetraphenylbiphosphine.
