ABSTRACT
The NMR data for alkali metal phosphides are given in Table A3. While most phosphides are best described as two coordinate, the phosphorus atom often has additional loose coordination to the metal atoms. As a consequence, the metal atom has been included as one of the P-bound atoms and the phosphides put into a separate table. These compounds constitute a relatively small group whose chemistry has been largely developed and explored by Issleib and his co-workers, though in recent years there has been a quickening of interest, particularly in structure and spectroscopy. The structures of the phosphides appear to be a function of solvent, temperature, and concentration and considerable differences in shift values are observed when these parameters are varied.3 , 6 It would be expected that with the high electron density at phosphorus in these substances the chemical shifts would be sensitive to steric and electronic effects. This is certainly the case but neither the direction nor magnitude of these shifts is easily predictable. In general Δδ for the formal process
