Selective dimerization of a trinuclear mixed-metal sandwich complex: construction of an axially chiral metal skeleton.

Certain metal sandwich complexes undergo dimerization through metal-metal bond formation. Here, we found that a reductive dimerization of mixed-metal Pd2Pt or PdPt2 sandwich complexes proceeds through selective Pt-Pt bond formation. A restricted rotation at the Pt-Pt bond of the PdPt2 dimer gave a unique axially chiral structure derived from a heterometal arrangement in a mixed-metal cluster.