page_title: Phosphine oxide
section_title: Parent compound
hierarchical_section_title: Phosphine oxide / Parent compound
caption_attribution_description: Ball-and-stick model the phosphine oxide molecule, H3P=O. Microwave data from THEOCHEM (2005) 723, 1-8
context_page_description: Phosphine oxides are phosphorus compounds with the formula OPX₃. When X = alkyl or aryl, these are organophosphine oxides. Triphenylphosphine oxide is an example. An inorganic phosphine oxide is phosphoryl chloride. Such compounds are thermally stable, decomposing only above 450 °C. Phosphoryl refers to a functional group drawn with a phosphorus-oxygen double bond.
context_section_description: The parent compound phosphine oxide (H₃PO) is unstable. It has been detected with mass spectrometry as a reaction product of oxygen and phosphine, by means of FT-IR in a phosphine-ozone reaction and in matrix isolation with a reaction of phosphine, vanadium oxytrichloride and chromyl chloride. It has also been reported relatively stable in a water-ethanol solution by electrochemical oxidation of white phosphorus, where it slowly disproportionates into phosphine and hypophosphorous acid. Secondary phosphine oxides (R₂P(O)H) are tautomers of phosphinous acids (R₂POH). 
  Phosphine oxide is reported as an intermediate in the room-temperature polymerization of phosphine and nitric oxide to solid PₓHy.
caption: Ball-and-stick model of the parent compound phosphine oxide
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