The ability of platinum compounds to activate methane catalytically in aqueous solution was first described more than 30 years ago. [1] Determining the mechanism of the Shilov reaction, which was considered to be an oxidative addition of an alkane to a platinum(ii) center, remained challenging for over 25 years. First, increasingly persistent alkylhydridoplatinum(iv) complexes have been discovered, [2] and then the ability of platinum(ii) species to add hydrocarbons to produce very stable platinum(iv) alkyl hydrides was demonstrated. [3] Recent work [4] has shown that the transient [LPtCH 3 ] þ , where L is a ligand that cannot structurally accommodate the square-planar geometry preferred by four-coordinate Pt II species and only modestly stabilizes the related octahedral alkane oxidative addition products, cleaves alkane CÀH bonds. Here L is [2.1.1]-(2,6)-pyridinophane, and the transient is available according to Equation (1) in Scheme 1. This transient cleaves one substrate C À H bond, but methane is eliminated easily from the Pt IV intermediate 1; b-H elimination from the derived Pt II alkyl compound then leads to net conversion of alkane to (coordinated) olefin, thus accomplishing a second substrate CÀH bond cleavage.To obtain alkane activation products different from the hydrido olefin complexes, we suggest here a modification of the starting dialkylhydridoplatinum(iv) complex to allow only an alkane single CÀH bond activation event. For this we needed a species with a single alkyl ligand attached to a platinum(iv) center which will leave one hydride in the transient [LPtX] þ (X ¼ H) species. As a synthetic source of this transient, we initially considered whether [LPtMe(H) 2 ] þ would selectively eliminate methane rather than H 2 . The same question has been addressed recently for the complex TpPtMeH 2 . [5] The free energies for methane and for H 2 elimination from [LPtMe(H) 2 ] þ were calculated (DFT, PBE functional, [6] SBK basis set, [7] and program package Priroda [8] ; Figure 1) and show that methane elimination is favored, both thermodynamically and kinetically, [9] by more than 13 kcal mol À1 relative to H 2 elimination. Due to the macrocycle constraints, Pt II cannot achieve a planar four-coordinate geometry in [LPtH] þ (Figure 1), and the best geometry is three-coordinate T-shaped, with only 14 valence electrons. The out-of-plane pendant N3 atom interacts negligibly with the Pt II center, and the longer distance of Pt to N2 than to N1 shows the trans influence of hydride. [10] Based on the energies in Figure 1, we expected to develop reversible alkane single C À H bond activation chemistry with a [LPtH] þ transient; this is unprecedented for Pt II .The synthesis of [LPtMe(H) 2 ] þ , [11] as its [BAr F 4 ] À salt (Ar F ¼ 3,5-(CF 3 ) 2 C 6 H 3 ), is summarized in Equation (2) (> 98 % yield based on NMR data, relative to signal for BAr F 4 ; yield of isolated product 85 %). The new dihydridoplatinum(iv) complex is air-and water-stable and can be recrystallized from a warm water±methanol mixture. No...