A class of dinuclear complexes that have been studied extensively for catalysis in the past are dinuclear metal carbonyl complexes such as Fe 2 (CO) 9 and Co 2 (CO) 8 . For example, Co 2 (CO) 8 is used as catalyst for hydroformylation industrially. In addition, it has also been shown to perform reduction reactions such as hydrosilylation. However, even though Co 2 (CO) 8 is a dinuclear precatalyst, the important intermediates that are found in the hydrosilylation mechanism of this compound are mononuclear. There are few examples in the literature of well-defined dicobalt silane complexes, even though these are of interest for studying their relevance in catalytic reduction reactions. Two examples of work on dicobalt complexes were reported by the groups of Nakajima and Deng. They show that low-valent cobalt complexes supported by monodentate N-heterocyclic carbene ligands (NHCs) can react with silanes to form dinuclear cobalt silane complexes. These complexes feature interesting bridging silane ligands which can be described as a halted oxidative addition of the Si-H bonds (Scheme 1). Scheme 1: Previously reported dicobalt silane complexes by the groups of Deng and Nakajima (top). In the latter structure, the positions of three of the hydrides in the Co 2 Si 3 core is unclear. PNNP ligand protonation and deprotonation reactions reported previously by our group (middle). A representation of the work detailed in this study (bottom).