A hydrogen-substituted osmium stannylene complex: isomerization to a metallostannylene complex via an unusual alpha-hydrogen migration from tin to osmium.

An osmium complex bearing a terminal hydrogen-substituted stannylene ligand, Cp*((i)Pr(3)P)(H)Os=SnH(trip) (1) (trip = 2,4,6-triisopropylphenyl), has been prepared by stannylene extrusion, and the complex has been structurally characterized. Complex 1 coordinates Lewis bases and activates the O-H bonds of water and methanol. Most interestingly, 1 converts to the metallostannylene complex Cp*((i)Pr(3)P)(H)(2)OsSn(trip) (2) thermally or photochemically by what appears to be a radical process.