C,C '-Ru to C,B '-Ru isomerisation in bis(phosphine)Ru complexes of [1,1 '-bis(ortho-carborane)]

We report herein the first example of the controlled isomerisation of a C,C '-bound (to metal) bis(ortho-carborane) ligand to C,B '-bound with no other change in the molecule. Since the C and B vertices of carboranes have different electron-donating properties this transformation allows the reactivity of the metal centre to be fine-tuned.