Oxidative addition of disulfide/diselenide to group 10 metal(0) and in situ functionalization to form neutral thiasalen/selenasalen group 10 metal(ii) complexesElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: 1H, 13C and 77Se spectra of complexes 14-19. CCDC 946622-996626. For ESI and crystallographic data in CIF or other electronic format see DOI: 10.1039/c3dt52132j

Three components, one pot synthesis of thiasalen/selenasalen Ni( ii ), Pd( ii ) and Pt( ii ) complexes, 14-19 , by the oxidative addition of S-S/Se-Se bond of bis( o -formylphenyl)disulfide/-diselenide to Ni(0), Pd(0) and Pt(0) followed by in situ Schiff base formation with ethylenediamine is reported. S-S or Se-Se bonds were cleaved and coordinated to the metal center as thiolate (ArS − ) or selenolate (ArSe − ) while the formal oxidation state of metal centers was changed from '0' to '+2'. The disulfide/diselenide reacted with zero-valent metals at room temperature to give only the monometallic complexes. All complexes (except Pd-thiolate complex 15 ) were studied by single crystal X-ray crystallography and revealed the square planar geometry around metal centers. One-pot, three-component reaction for the synthesis of neutral thiasalen and selenasalen Ni( ii ), Pd( ii ) and Pt( ii ) complexes is reported via oxidative addition of bis(o-formylphenyl) disulfide or -diselenide.