C,C'-Ru to C,B'-Ru isomerisation in bis(phosphine)Ru complexes of [1,1'-bis(ortho-carborane)].

We report herein the first example of the controlled isomerisation of a C,C'-bound (to metal) bis(ortho-carborane) ligand to C,B'-bound with no other change in the molecule. Since the C and B vertices of carboranes have different electron-donating properties this transformation allows the reactivity of the metal centre to be fine-tuned.