“…Nitriles (N≡CR) are ubiquitous and versatile ligands in coordination chemistry [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]. They most commonly behave as monodentate ( end-on ) ligands, and have been widely employed as weakly coordinating agents in complexes of low- to middle-valent transition metals, since their substitution by more strongly coordinating ligands is a convenient strategy to access a multitude of derivatives, catalysts and materials [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ]. Furthermore, nitrile ligands are usually susceptible to nucleophilic attack [ 12 , 13 , 14 ] and may be engaged in a great variety of chemical transformations mediated by the adjacent metal centre, either catalytic [ 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ] or stoichiometric [ 12 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ].…”