A remote Lewis acid trigger dramatically accelerates biaryl reductive elimination from a platinum complex.

A strategy for the control of electron density at a metal center is reported, which uses a remote chemical switch involving second-sphere Lewis acid binding that modulates electron density in the first coordination sphere. Binding of the Lewis acid B(C6F5)3 at remote nitrogen positions of a bipyrazine-diarylplatinum(II) complex accelerates biaryl reductive elimination by a factor of 64,000.