Room-temperature C - C bond cleavage of an arene by a metallacarborane

(Figure Presented) On the fly: Reduction of 1,1'-bis(o-car-borane) and subsequent reaction with a source of {Ru(p-cymene)}²⁺ fragments yields a fly-over bridge species resulting from room-temperature C - C bond cleavage of a p-cymene ligand. DFTcalculations suggest that the arene is sandwiched between two Ru atoms as part of a metallacarborane (see picture; C gray, B yellow, Ru red) and reduced by the second, pendant, carborane. © 2010 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, weinheim.