Hexamethylphosphoramide, often abbreviated HMPA, is a

phosphoramide Phosphoramide is a chemical compound with the molecular formula O=P(NH2)3. It is a derivative of phosphoric acid in which each of the hydroxyl groups have been replaced with an amino group. Phosphoramide arises from the reaction of phosphoryl ch ...

(an

amide In organic chemistry, an amide, also known as an organic amide or a carboxamide, is a compound with the general formula , where R, R', and R″ represent organic groups or hydrogen atoms. The amide group is called a peptide bond when it is ...

phosphoric acid Phosphoric acid (orthophosphoric acid, monophosphoric acid or phosphoric(V) acid) is a colorless, odorless phosphorus-containing solid, and inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is commonly encountered as an 85% aqueous solution, w ...

) with the

formula In science, a formula is a concise way of expressing information symbolically, as in a mathematical formula or a ''chemical formula''. The informal use of the term ''formula'' in science refers to the general construct of a relationship betwee ...

This colorless liquid is a useful reagent in

organic synthesis Organic synthesis is a special branch of chemical synthesis and is concerned with the intentional construction of organic compounds. Organic molecules are often more complex than inorganic compounds, and their synthesis has developed into one o ...

Structure and reactivity

HMPA is the oxide of the highly basic tertiary phosphine hexamethylphosphorous triamide (HMPT), P(NMe₂)₃. Like other phosphine oxides (such as

triphenylphosphine oxide Triphenylphosphine oxide (often abbreviated TPPO) is the organophosphorus compound with the formula OP(C6H5)3, also written as Ph3PO or PPh3O (Ph = C6H5). This colourless crystalline compound is a common but potentially useful waste product in ...

), the molecule has a tetrahedral core and a P=O bond that is highly polarized, with significant negative charge residing on the oxygen atom. Compounds containing a

nitrogen Nitrogen is the chemical element with the symbol N and atomic number 7. Nitrogen is a nonmetal and the lightest member of group 15 of the periodic table, often called the pnictogens. It is a common element in the universe, estimated at se ...

–phosphorus bond typically are degraded by

hydrochloric acid Hydrochloric acid, also known as muriatic acid, is an aqueous solution of hydrogen chloride. It is a colorless solution with a distinctive pungent smell. It is classified as a strong acid Acid strength is the tendency of an acid, symbol ...

to form a protonated amine and phosphate. It dissolves alkali metal salts and alkali metals, forming blue solutions which are stable for a few hours.

Solvated electron A solvated electron is a free electron in (solvated in) a solution, and is the smallest possible anion. Solvated electrons occur widely. Often, discussions of solvated electrons focus on their solutions in ammonia, which are stable for days, but s ...

s are present in these blue solutions.

Applications

HMPA is a specialty

solvent A solvent (s) (from the Latin '' solvō'', "loosen, untie, solve") is a substance that dissolves a solute, resulting in a solution. A solvent is usually a liquid but can also be a solid, a gas, or a supercritical fluid. Water is a solvent for ...

for

polymer A polymer (; Greek '' poly-'', "many" + ''-mer'', "part") is a substance or material consisting of very large molecules called macromolecules, composed of many repeating subunits. Due to their broad spectrum of properties, both synthetic a ...

gases Gas is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, liquid, and plasma). A pure gas may be made up of individual atoms (e.g. a noble gas like neon), elemental molecules made from one type of atom (e.g. oxygen), or ...

, and

organometallic compounds Organometallic chemistry is the study of organometallic compounds, chemical compounds containing at least one chemical bond between a carbon atom of an organic molecule and a metal, including alkali, alkaline earth, and transition metals, and so ...

. It improves the selectivity of lithiation reactions by breaking up the

oligomers In chemistry and biochemistry, an oligomer () is a molecule that consists of a few repeating units which could be derived, actually or conceptually, from smaller molecules, monomers.Quote: ''Oligomer molecule: A molecule of intermediate relative ...

lithium Lithium (from el, λίθος, lithos, lit=stone) is a chemical element with the symbol Li and atomic number 3. It is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal. Under standard conditions, it is the least dense metal and the least dense solid el ...

bases such as

butyllithium Butyllithium may refer to one of 5 isomeric organolithium reagents of which 3 are commonly used in chemical synthesis: * ''n''-Butyllithium, abbreviated BuLi or nBuLi * ''sec''-Butyllithium, abbreviated ''sec''-BuLi or sBuLi, has 2 stereoisomers, ...

. Because HMPA selectively solvates cations, it accelerates otherwise slow S_N2 reactions by generating more bare anions. The basic

centers in HMPA

coordinate In geometry, a coordinate system is a system that uses one or more numbers, or coordinates, to uniquely determine the position of the points or other geometric elements on a manifold such as Euclidean space. The order of the coordinates is sign ...

strongly to Li⁺. HMPA is a ligand in the useful reagents based on

molybdenum Molybdenum is a chemical element with the symbol Mo and atomic number 42 which is located in period 5 and group 6. The name is from Neo-Latin ''molybdaenum'', which is based on Ancient Greek ', meaning lead, since its ores were confused with lea ...

peroxide In chemistry, peroxides are a group of compounds with the structure , where R = any element. The group in a peroxide is called the peroxide group or peroxo group. The nomenclature is somewhat variable. The most common peroxide is hydrogen p ...

complexes, for example, MoO(O₂)₂(HMPA)(H₂O) is used as an

oxidant An oxidizing agent (also known as an oxidant, oxidizer, electron recipient, or electron acceptor) is a substance in a redox chemical reaction that gains or " accepts"/"receives" an electron from a (called the , , or ). In other words, an oxid ...

in organic synthesis.

Alternative reagents

Dimethyl sulfoxide Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) is an organosulfur compound with the formula ( CH3)2. This colorless liquid is the sulfoxide most widely used commercially. It is an important polar aprotic solvent that dissolves both polar and nonpolar compounds a ...

can often be used in place of HMPA as a cosolvent. Both are strong

hydrogen bond In chemistry, a hydrogen bond (or H-bond) is a primarily electrostatic force of attraction between a hydrogen (H) atom which is covalently bound to a more electronegative "donor" atom or group (Dn), and another electronegative atom bearing a ...

acceptors, and their oxygen atoms bind metal

cation An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by convent ...

s. Other alternatives to HMPA include the ''N'',''N''′-tetraalkylureas

DMPU ''N'',''N''′-Dimethylpropyleneurea (DMPU) is a cyclic urea sometimes used as a polar, aprotic organic solvent. In 1985, Dieter Seebach showed that it is possible to replace the suspected carcinogen hexamethylphosphoramide Hexamethylphosphorami ...

(dimethylpropyleneurea) or DMI (1,3-dimethyl-2-imidazolidinone). Tripyrrolidinophosphoric acid triamide (TPPA) has been reported to be a good substitute reagent for HMPA in reductions with samarium diiodide and as a

Lewis base A Lewis acid (named for the American physical chemist Gilbert N. Lewis) is a chemical species that contains an empty orbital which is capable of accepting an electron pair from a Lewis base to form a Lewis adduct. A Lewis base, then, is any sp ...

additive to many reactions involving

samarium Samarium is a chemical element with symbol Sm and atomic number 62. It is a moderately hard silvery metal that slowly oxidizes in air. Being a typical member of the lanthanide series, samarium usually has the oxidation state +3. Compounds of samar ...

ketyl A ketyl group in organic chemistry is an anion radical that contains a group R2C−O•. It is the product of the 1-electron reduction of a ketone. Another mesomeric structure has the radical position on carbon and the negative charge on oxyge ...

Toxicity

HMPA is only mildly toxic but has been shown to cause cancer in rats. HMPA can be degraded by the action of

References

External links

* * * {{Authority control Phosphoramides Solvents IARC Group 2B carcinogens