CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE CHEMISTRY OF PHOSPHORUS .235. ON THE PREPARATION OF LARGER AMOUNTS OF DIPHOSPHANE(4) IN THE LABORATORY

The preparation of several hundred grammes of diphosphane(4) by hydrolysis of calcium phosphide in a semicontinuous process as well as the handling of larger amounts of this compound are reported. In comparison with earlier results [12], the yield has been raised by 37 percent with simultaneous increase of the accessible total amount. The white solid which is formed in the preparation and purification of diphosphane(4) is not, as was believed in earlier work [25, 8], triphosphane(5) or another, novel phosphorus hydride but is rather a clathrate compound of diphosphane(4) or the phosphanes PnHn+2 (n = 2-4) and water, respectively.