Photolysis of PCl3/POCl3 with Oxygen Dopant Using 193 nm ArF Excimer at Low Temperatures: Oxygen Insertion through ‘Phosphadioxirane’ Pathway

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AbstractPhotolysis was performed on PCl3 and POCl3 in the presence of oxygen dopant in Ar matrix at low temperatures using 193 nm ArF excimer laser. The photo irradiation initially facilitated the formation of ozone in situ in the low temperature matrix. For PCl3+O2 photolysis with 193 nm ArF excimer, initially POCl3 was produced and subsequent oxygen atom insertion on POCl3 generated PO2Cl3. Furthermore, secondary reaction channel opens up in PCl3+O2 photolysis to form a variety of photoproducts such as POCl, PIIIO2Cl, PVO2Cl and PO3Cl. The insertion of oxygen atom on POCl through phosphadioxirane intermediate generated PIIIO2Cl and the direct oxygen atom addition resulted in PVO2Cl. A successive oxygen insertion on PVO2Cl triggered the PO3Cl generation. The identification of all the photoproducts was confirmed through 18O2 isotopic experiments and quantum chemical computations performed using density functional theory (DFT). Computations carried out at B3LYP level of theory with 6–311++G(d,p) basis set were used to correlate the structure of photo products obtained experimentally. Interestingly, photo irradiation of POCl3 with oxygen dopant in Ar matrix @193 nm ArF excimer resulted in the generation of PO2Cl3, PO3Cl3 and PO4Cl3 photo products by a sequential insertion of oxygen atoms through phosphadioxirane intermediate. A compelling evidence for the passage of the reaction through phosphadioxirane intermediate is established through 18O2 isotopic substitution experiments.