Would it be OK to briefly expose this substance to ambient atmosphere or will it all oxidize immediately?
Do you actually mean PhPH2 ? If so, it oxidizes very quickly and should not be exposed to air. If you mean Ph3P, or triphenylphosphine, brief exposure is fine.
It's better to keep it under argon or nitrogen atmosphere...otherwise chances of side reactions are more....
Ph3P undergoes slow oxidation by air to give triphenylphosphine oxide, Ph3PO. It should be kept under nitrogen atmosphere.
This kind of phosphine oxidizes very quickly to form PhP(OH)2.
Ref. Freedman, Leon D.; Doak, G. O. (1952). "The Reduction of Benzenephosphonyl Dichloride". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 74 (13): 3414–3415. doi:10.1021/ja01133a504
PPhH2 is very rapidly oxidized to phenylphosphine oxide or phenylphosphinic acid in the air while triphenylphosphine is stable in the air for an extended period of time (days).
I agree with Schaub. Triphenylphosphine is relatively stable and can be stored at room temperature in a nicely capped botthe. This is one of the reagents used in laboratory for the reduction of organic peroxides and hydroperoxides.
Phenylphosphine (PhPH2) is extremely air sensitive, ideally use a glove box to dispense it and maintain an inert atmosphere at all times. I would also caution that it is regarded as pyrophoric (i.e. spontaneously combustable) on exposure to air. You should also degas any solvents you are going to use if you want your chemistry to work well as any dissolved oxygen will rapidly oxidise the phosphine.
No it is not stable in air, nearly all the trialkylphosphines are very air sensitive readily forming the phosphine oxide, some of the more volatile ones are even pyrophoric. So needs to be handled in inert atmosphere and probably with degassed solvent, if you need to keep it pure. Once they are formed into complexes with other compounds they are sometimes more stable, though I don't know specifically about selenium.
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