Synthesis of palladium and platinum donor complexes and study of their participation in self-assembly reactions. X-ray crystal structure of [Pt(C6H4Ctriple bond; length of mdashCC5H4N)2(dppp)] (dppp = 1,3-bis(diphenylphosphino)propane)

Novel square-planar compounds [M(NC5H4Ctriple bond; length of mdashCH)2(dppp)](OTf)2 (M = Pd (1), Pt (2)), [Pt(Ctriple bond; length of mdashCC6H4CN)2(dppp)] (3) and [Pt(C6H4Ctriple bond; length of mdashCC5H4N)2(dppp)] (4) (dppp = 1,3-bis(diphenylphosphino)propane) were prepared and characterised. Their potential as building blocks in the generation of heterobimetallic squares was studied. The reaction of 4 and the ditopic acceptor species [Pd(H2O)2(dppf)](OTf)2 enabled a tetrametallic metallocycle containing two platinum and two palladium atoms to be obtained. The crystal X-ray structure of 4 shows that the Pt⋯N vectors are nearly perpendicular, and confirm the suitability of the compound to act as a corner unit for the construction of molecular squares.