Cobalt Diazo‐Compounds: From Nitrilimide to Isocyanoamide via a Diazomethanediide Fleeting Intermediate

Lithium trimethylsilyldiazomethanide and a cobalt (II) precursor with an N‐anchored tris‐NHC (TIMEN(mes)) ligand provide access to the cobalt nitrilimide 1. Complex 1 was structurally characterized by single‐crystal X‐ray diffractometry (SC‐XRD) and its electronic structure was examined in detail, including EPR spectroscopy, SQUID magnetometry and computational analyses. The desilylation of the C‐(trimethylsilyl)nitrilimide reveals a transient complex with an elusive diazomethanediide ligand, which substitutes one of the mesitylene rings of the ancillary ligand through C−N bond cleavage. This transformation results in the cyclometalated cobalt(II) complex 2, featuring a rare isocyanoamido‐κ‐C ligand.