In the presence of an iridium pincer complex, dehydrogenation of ammonia borane (H3NBH3) occurs rapidly at room temperature in tetrahydrofuran to generate 1.0 equivalent of H2 and [NH2BH2]5. A metal borohydride complex has been isolated as a dormant form of the catalyst which can be reactivated by reaction with H2.

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Of the several hundred examples of transition metal dihydrogen complexes that have been reported to date, the vast majority have H-H distances of less than 1.0 Angstrom. A small number of complexes have been reported with distances in the range of 1.1 to 1.5 Angstrom. These complexes have been termed elongated dihydrogen complexes. In this review, experimental methods for structure determination of such complexes are summarized, along with computational approaches which have proven useful in understanding the structures of these molecules.

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Reaction of triphenylmethylium tetrakis-(pentafluorophenyl)borate, [Ph 3 C][B(C 6 F 5 ) 4 ], with excess neat triethylsilane affords triethylsilylium(triethylsilane) tetrakis(pentafluorophenyl)borate, [(Et 3 Si) 2 (μ-H)][B(C 6 F 5 ) 4 ](1), identified by X-ray crystallography. In chlorobenzene and fluorobenzene, 1 is observed in solution. When 1 is dissolved in benzene or toluene, the evolved gas was shown to be hydrogen. Isotope labeling experiments demonstrate that the hydrogen arises from the reaction of Et 3 SiH with the silylium complex of the arene solvent.

Protonation of TpM(PR 3 )H 2 (M ) Rh, Ir) complexes with HBF 4 ‚Et 2 O or [H(Et 2 O) 2 ][B(Ar) 4 ] (Ar ) 3,5-(CF 3 ) 2 C 6 H 3 ) affords cationic complexes which exhibit a single hydride resonance at all accessible temperatures in the 1 H NMR spectrum. Formulation as fluxional dihydrogen/hydride complexes is indicated by short T 1 (min) values of ca. 22 ms (Ir) and 7 ms (Rh). The relaxation times are consistent with H-H bond lengths of 0.88-1.11 Å in the iridium complexes and 0.73-0.92 Å in the rhodium complexes depending on the relative rate of the dihydrogen rotational motion. In the case of the iridium complexes, partial substitution of the hydride positions with deuterium or tritium results in large temperature-dependent isotope shifts and resolvable J H-D or J H-T coupling constants. Analysis of the chemical shift and coupling constant data as a function of temperature is consistent with a preference for the heavy hydrogen isotope to occupy the hydride rather than the dihydrogen site. This analysis also provides the limiting chemical shifts of the dihydrogen and hydride ligands as well as the 1 J H-D coupling constant (ca. 25 Hz) in the bound dihydrogen ligand.Since the first report of a stable molecular hydrogen complex by Kubas, 1 the possibility that a fluxional polyhydride complex might also contain a dihydrogen ligand has been actively investigated. 2 In general, transition metal polyhydride complexes are characterized by high coordination numbers (CN 7-9) and high formal oxidation states. 3 Because several structures of nearly equivalent energy are available to seven-, eight-, and nine-coordinate complexes, rapid permutation of the hydride positions is often observed by 1 H NMR spectroscopy. As a result, structural characterization in solution depends upon indirect methods, in which the observed NMR parameters are a population-weighted average of all the hydride environments. For example, Crabtree and co-workers have employed T 1 measurements to detect short H-H contacts in a range of polyhydride complexes, including [Ir(PCy 3 ) 2 H 6 ] + and Fe-(PEtPh 2 ) 3 H 4 . 4 A quantitative treatment of relaxation in polyhydride complexes has been developed which allows useful structural information to be obtained from T 1 (min) data. [4][5][6] We have previously reported the structure and properties of cationic iridium complexes of the form [CpIr(L)H 3 ]BF 4 (L ) various PR 3 ), which have been shown to adopt iridium(V) trihydride structures in the solid state. 7,8 These complexes undergo a rapid hydride rearrangement which leads to a single hydride resonance in the 1 H NMR spectrum above ca. 220 K. However, at very low temperatures, spectra consistent with the solid state structure are obtained.In this paper we investigate the effect of substituting the Cp ligand of [CpIr(L)H 3 ]BF 4 complexes with the hydrotris(1-pyrazolyl)borate (Tp) 9 ligand. The new Tp complexes, [TpIr-(L)(H 2 )H]BF 4 (L ) PMe 3 , PPh 3 ), are formulated as dihydrogen/ hydride complexes, although only a single hydride resonance is observed...