Facile dihydrogen release from phosphino-borinate ester Lewis pairsElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Experimental details. CCDC reference numbers 764587 and 764588. For ESI and crystallographic data in CIF or other electronic format see DOI: 10.1039/c0dt00513d

New phosphino-borinate ester Lewis pairs of the type t Bu 2 PCH 2 C(R) 2 OB(C 6 F 5 ) 2 (R = Me or CF 3 ) are synthesised from the corresponding phosphino-alcohol and HB(C 6 F 5 ) 2 . Dihydrogen release from the zwitterionic t Bu 2 PHCH 2 C(R) 2 OBH(C 6 F 5 ) 2 is facile. New phosphino-borinate ester Lewis pairs of the type t Bu 2 PCH 2 C(R) 2 OB(C 6 F 5 ) 2 (R = Me or CF 3 ) are synthesised from the corresponding phosphino-alcohol and HB(C 6 F 5 ) 2 . Dihydrogen release from the zwitterionic t Bu 2 PHCH 2 C(R) 2 OBH(C 6 F 5 ) 2 is facile.