A twist on a classic scaffold: rational design of a new bimetallic platform.

Herein, we report the synthesis of a modular family of novel bimetallic tetraamidodiamine (tada) ligands, Li4-R-tada (R = Me3Si, tBuMe2Si, and iPr3Si). These silylamido ligands display two distinct binding pockets whose steric profiles can be easily tuned by choice of the substituents on silicon. We also show that salt metathesis is a convenient route to install these new ligands on the early transition metals titanium(IV) and vanadium(III).