Weakly Coordinated Cobaltacycles: Trapping Catalytically Competent Intermediates in Cp*CoIII Catalysis.

Herein, we disclose the synthesis of metallacyclic Cp*CoIII complexes containing weakly chelating functional groups. We have employed these compounds not only as an exceptional platform for accessing some of the most widely invoked transient intermediates in C-H functionalization processes but also as competent catalysts in different Cp*Co-catalyzed transformations, including a benchmark coupling reaction.