Frogley, BenjaminHill, AnthonyWelsh, Steven2024-03-201477-9226http://hdl.handle.net/1885/316173Three examples of 9-bromo-10-(alkylidynyl)anthracenes, [W{CC(C6H4)2CBr}(CO)2(L)] (L = hydrotris(dimethylpyrazol-1-yl)borate Tp∗, hydrotris(pyrazol-1-yl)borate Tp, hydrotris(2-mercapto-N-methylimidazol-1-yl)borate Tm) were prepared via modified Fischer-Mayr acyl oxide-abstraction protocols. With a sufficiently bulky ancillary ligand (L = Tp∗) the aryl bromide is ammenable to cross-coupling reactions that enable more elaborate derivatives to be prepared. These including symmetric bis(alkylidynyl)anthracenes as well as non-palindromic examples bearing disparate metals and/or co-ligands. In contrast, these couplings fail for smaller ligands (L = Tp, Tm) where it was found that Pd0 or Pt0 were instead able to coordinate across two WC bonds to give trimetallic bow-tie complexes, [W2M{μ-CC(C6H4)2CBr}2(CO)4(L)2] (M = Pd, Pt; L = Tp, Tm).We gratefully acknowledge the Australian Research Council (DP190100723 and DP200101222) for funding.application/pdfen-AUThis journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2021202110.1039/d1dt02537f2022-11-13