Radical Complexes of Palladium and Platinum with Bisphosphane Derivatives of Maleic Anhydride

A novel redox reaction rather than a simple ligand exchange takes place in the reaction formulated below with Mpd or Pt and L = PPh3; the extremely sensitive products are to be regarded as M2+[(PP)−]2. In contrast, Ni(CO)4 gives the stable Ni(PP)2.