[tallman34]

Hey all just curious if anyones really big on organic chemistry, lets say I have a phosphorous that I want really electron deficient I have phenyl groups on it which I'm always confused whether the withdrawing or donating, but if the phosphorous has oxygens and then the phenyl group linked through the oxygens, would that make it more electron withdrawing? Thanks for your thoughts.

[antimatter101]

I believe that you are talking about phenyl ethers here, and that it would be deactivating since the oxygen atom is somewhat polarised to contribute to the aromatic ring through delocalisation of electrons.

For example, phenol is acidic (carbolic acid) due to that effect, known as resonance induction. (Inductive effect)

[Babcock_Hall]

It sounds as if you are talking about phenyl esters of some typo of phosphorus-containing acid, such as phosphoric acid, or possibly a phosphonic or phosphinic acid (something with a double bond between phosphorus and one oxygen atom).  One way to approach this is to look at the phosphorus chemical shift of the phenyl group versus an alkyl group.  Phosphorus-31 shifts go upfield as electron-withdrawing groups are added.