When you do the reaction with propyne, the compound can be a precursor to obtain propiophenone and P2P.
The addition of a molecule of water across the triple bond (H
20, H
2SO
4 / HgSO
4) gives an enol, which rearranges to the ketone (tautomeric equilibrium). This gives propiophenone.
A more interesting alternative for the use phenyl-1-propyne would be an addition of borane (B
2H
6). This gives the alkene with a BH
2 in the 2 position. Oxidation (H
2O
2 / OH
-) gives a more interesting enol (with the hydroxyl in the 2 position). This rearranges to P2P.
This is mabey a better alternative, because the Tebbe reagent (Cp
2TiMe
2) is somewhat exotic ...
I thought in a previous post about the use of the Tebbe reagent in the P2P synthesis (see thread
Post 363414
(Cyrax: "alpha-ethylstyrene synthesis (organometalic chem.)", Chemistry Discourse)), but upon further reflection, I thought about it as being a bad idea (at least for large scale synthesis). Tebbe 's reagent isn't exactly easy to prepare, and I think it woubd be rather expensive (what is the price exactly?). In the thread, one can find refs. for it's preparation.