Abstract: Bisphosphines are prepared by reacting a phosphine with a dihalide in the presence of an acid; characteristically, bisphosphonium compounds are initially formed and then converted into the bisphosphines.

Abstract: Bisphosphines are prepared by reacting a phosphine with a dihalide in the presence of an acid; characteristically, bisphosphonium compounds are initially formed and then converted into the bisphosphines.

Abstract: The invention provides the use of a metal complex, which is a complex of one or more metal atoms or ions with one or more ligands, as a catalyst in an organic transformation selected from hydrogenation of carbon-heteroatom double bonds, hydroformylation, dialkylzinc additions to aldehydes, hydrocarboxylation, allylic substitution, oxidation, epoxidation, dihydroxylation, Diels-Alder cycloadditions, dipolar cycloadditions and rearrangement reactions, wherein one or more of the ligands is a ligand of formula (1), wherein the bridge group is an organic functional group, and the R group is a substituted phenyl group, wherein the R group has only one substituent at the ortho position, and wherein a carbon atom of the R group bonds the R group to the P atom.