Hydrogen activation with perfluorinated organoboranes: 1,2,3-tris(pentafluorophenyl)-4,5,6,7-tetrafluoro-1-boraindene.

The perfluorinated boraindene was synthesized and fully characterized. Both computational and crystallographic data show that is antiaromatic. Compound was shown to react reversibly with H2 and to catalyse the hydrogenation of cyclohexene. The mechanism of catalysis was probed experimentally and computationally.