O2 activation at a trispyrazolylborato nickel(ii) malonato complex.

To support mechanistic inferences made for an iron-based dioxygenase model, a nickel analogue, i.e. a TpNi-malonate (1) was prepared. 1 proved to represent a rare case of a nickel complex reacting with O2 in a controlled manner - mechanistically different from the iron case - and leads to hydroxylation of the malonate.