Tapping into the coordinative potential of a C -functional 1,4-diphosphabarrelene using two sets of complementary ligand centres.

7,8-Dihydro-1,4-diphosphabarrelene diselones and bis(NHCs) were synthesised and employed as multitopic P,Se and P,C ligands in coordination chemistry, benefitting from a unique bent, P-bridged topology, thus being promising new building blocks.