New possible mode of ligand–metal cooperation in PC(sp3)P pincer complexesElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: full spectroscopic data, experimental details and theoretical methods and geometries have been deposited. CCDC reference numbers 808730and 808731. For ESI and crystallographic data in CIF or other electronic format see DOI: 10.1039/c1dt10167fSM and RR contributed equally to this paper. SK performed theoretical studies. DG thanks Israeli Science Foundation for financial support. We also thank Dr Shmuel Cohen for solving X-ray structures.

Ligand–metal cooperation in iridium and platinum complexes bearing tricyclic dibenzobarrelene-based PC(sp3)P pincer ligands is discussed. We demonstrated that the carbon–metal bond in these complexes may be efficiently cleaved and regenerated via1,2-addition/elimination reactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]