Regiospecific high yield reductive coupling of diynes to give a luminescent rhodium complexElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: absorption, emission and luminescence spectra for 5. See http://www.rsc.org/suppdata/cc/b1/b108625a/

Abstract

Reaction of 2 equivalents of 1,4-bis(p-tolylethynyl)buta-1,3-diyne with [(PMe₃)₄Rh(–CCSiMe₃)] gives the unusual, highly luminescent mer,cis-[tris(trimethylphosphine)trimethylsilylethynyl-2,5-bis( p-tolylethynyl)-3,4-bis(p-tolyl)rhodacyclopenta-2,4-dien e] 5 in quantitative yield which has been fully characterised by ¹H and ³¹P{¹H} NMR, IR, UV–VIS and luminescence spectroscopies, elemental analysis and single crystal X-ray diffraction.