Novel bowl-shaped triarylphosphines, tris (2, 2 ″, 6, 6 ″-tetraalkyl [1, 1′: 3′, 1 ″- terphenyl]-5′-yl) phosphines (TRMP: alkyl= methyl; TRIP: alkyl= isopropyl), were prepared by lithiation of the corresponding m-terphenyl bromides followed by reaction with PCl3. X- ray crystallographic analysis revealed that the phosphorus center of TRMP is embedded in the shallow bowl-shaped cavity of 16 Å diameter and 2.1 Å depth formed by three ...