Reactions of iridium hydride pincer complexes with dioxygen: new dioxygen complexes and reversible O-2 binding

The reaction of molecular oxygen with iridium pincer hydride complexes, ((PCP)-P-tBu)Ir(H)(X) [(PCP)-P-tBu = kappa(3)-C6H3((CH2PBu2)-Bu-t)(2), X = Ph, H, CCPh], results in O-2 induced reductive elimination and formation of the novel dioxygen complexes ((PCP)-P-tBu)Ir(O-2)(n) [n = 1 (7), 2 (6)].