Tom Stennett, James Mattock, Leanne Pentecost, Alfredo Vargas, Holger Braunschweig

• A doubly base-stabilized diborane based on a benzylphosphine linker was prepared by a salt elimination reaction between 2-LiC\(_6\)H\(_4\)CH\(_2\)PCy\(_2\).Et\(_2\)O and B\(_2\)Br\(_4\). This compound was reduced with KC8 to its corresponding diborene, with the benzylphosphine forming a five-membered chelate. The diborene reacts with butadiene, 2-trimethylsiloxy-1,3-butadiene and isoprene to form 4,5-diboracyclohexenes, which interconvert between their 1,1- (geminal) and 1,2- (vicinal) chelated isomers. The 1,1-chelated diborene undergoes aA doubly base-stabilized diborane based on a benzylphosphine linker was prepared by a salt elimination reaction between 2-LiC\(_6\)H\(_4\)CH\(_2\)PCy\(_2\).Et\(_2\)O and B\(_2\)Br\(_4\). This compound was reduced with KC8 to its corresponding diborene, with the benzylphosphine forming a five-membered chelate. The diborene reacts with butadiene, 2-trimethylsiloxy-1,3-butadiene and isoprene to form 4,5-diboracyclohexenes, which interconvert between their 1,1- (geminal) and 1,2- (vicinal) chelated isomers. The 1,1-chelated diborene undergoes a halide-catalysed isomerisation into its thermodynamically favoured 1,2-isomer, which undergoes Diels-Alder reactions more slowly than the kinetic product.…