Methylphosphono- and thiophosphono-dithioformate as radical trapping agents

The addition of a number of alkyl, alkoxy, thiyl, and organometallic radicals to the title compounds has been investigated by means of EPR spectroscopy. In all cases the reactions resulted in the regiospecific thiophilic attack of the radical at the thiocarbonyl group of the substrates, leading to rather persistent spin adducts. The only exception to this behavior was provided by manganese decacarbonyl, which only reacted with the thiophosphono derivative, yielding a dinuclear adduct for which, by analogy with previous studies, a cyclic structure has been proposed.