Surprising behaviour of M–CO(lone pair)⋯π(arene) interactions in the solid state of fluorinated oxaphosphirane complexes

We report the synthesis and X-ray characterization of several oxaphosphirane tungsten(0) complexes especially designed to analyse the intramolecular W–CO(lone pair)⋯π(arene) interaction. The unexpected behaviour of this interaction in the solid state of oxaphosphirane complexes with different degrees of fluorination is rationalized by means of DFT calculations using orbital analysis and Bader's theory of “atoms-in-molecules”.