Vibrational spectra and structure of biphosphine and biphosphine-d4

Infrared and Raman spectra have been obtained for biphosphine and biphosphine-d4 in both solid and vapor phases. From the spectral data, it is concluded that only one conformer exists in both solid and fluid phases and that this is the gauche conformer. A normal-coordinate analysis has also been performed, in which the 24 vibrational frequencies of the two isotopes have been fitted by 10 force constants to an overall average error of 1.0%. The PED indicates that there is practically no mixing of the normal modes in the P2H4 molecule but the P-P stretch and the PD2 wagging modes are extensively mixed for the P2D4 molecule.