Fused metallacyclopropenes from alkynylphenols.

Metallacycloprop-1-enes can be constructed from coordinated alkynes. In this work, we report a convenient synthesis of fused osmacyclopropene complexes 1 and 3 from OsCl 2 (PPh 3 ) 3 and alkynylphenols. Paramagnetic alkyne-coordinated phenolate complexes 2 were obtained as the key intermediates for the formation of osmacyclopropenes, demonstrating selective CC activation under different conditions.