%0 Journal Article %A Harding, Brennen A. %A Melvin, Patrick R. %A Dougherty, William %A Kassel, Scott %A Goodson, Felix E. %D 2013 %T Capturing a Ghost. Synthesis and Structural Characterization of Pd(dba)[P(o‑Tol)3]2 %U https://acs.figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Capturing_a_Ghost_Synthesis_and_Structural_Characterization_of_Pd_dba_P_i_o_i_Tol_sub_3_sub_sub_2_sub_/2402773 %R 10.1021/om400335a.s001 %2 https://acs.figshare.com/ndownloader/files/4042480 %K dba %K Pd %K tris %K literature synthesis %K alternative synthesis %K Structural Characterization %K phosphine ligands %K polymerization reactions %K palladium compound %K palladium complexes %X In an effort to improve upon a literature synthesis of bis­[tris­(o-tolyl)­phosphine]­palladium­(0) (1) from tris­(o-tolyl)­phosphine and Pd2(dba)3, we instead isolated a new compound which proved to have the composition Pd­(dba)­[P­(o-Tol)3]2 (2), upon analysis by X-ray crystallography. While this is not the first known palladium compound containing both dba and phosphine ligands, it is, to our knowledge, the first containing dba and tris­(o-tolyl)­phosphine. This is significant, because mixtures of Pd2(dba)3 and tris­(o-tolyl)­phosphine are routinely used in cross-coupling protocols, and palladium complexes containing dba and tris­(o-tolyl)­phosphine have been cited as intermediates in organometallic and polymerization reactions. The most interesting crystallographic parameter for 2 is an abnormally long Pd–P bond length of 2.388(1) Å, which we believe is the cause of this complex’s metastability. We also present an alternative synthesis of 1 that does not require a large excess of phosphine. %I ACS Publications