A Dicopper Platform that Stabilizes the Formation of Pentanuclear Coinage Metal Hydride Complexes.

Reduction of a dicopper(II) bis(hydroxide) complex with silanes in the presence of external copper or silver cations results in the formation of multinuclear hydride clusters, which were characterized by a variety of NMR spectroscopic experiments and X-ray crystallography. In particular, the pentanuclear complexes adopt an unusual planar "bow tie" configuration. The copper hydride complexes are efficient catalysts for the dehydrogenation of formic acid to H and CO .