Various attempts to reduce 1 with reducing agents such as KC 8 and NaHBEt 3 led to the formation of intractable mixtures. Similarly, attempts to deprotonate 1 with strong bases were also unsuccessful. We hypothesize that the reduction and deprotonation of 1 is hampered by its insolubility in nonhalogenated solvents, resulting in detrimental side reactions with the more soluble reaction products that are exposed to a large excess of reductant or base. To overcome this, we changed the order and first deprotonated the PNNP ligand in situ and then add this deprotonated ligand to the cobalt precursor. The deprotonation of the PNNP ligand with KH to form the PNNP* anion, and the subsequent complexation with CoCl 2 (THF) 1.5 led to the formation of a CoCl 2 THF coordination polymer, and not to a complex containing the ligand. Inspired by our group's dicopper PNNP chemistry , we hypothesized that performing the complexation of the PNNP* anionic ligand in the presence of an equivalent of KOtBu may lead to a OtBu bridged complex. Therefore, 2 eq of KOtBu were added to the PNNP ligand in THF leading to a quick color change to deep red, indicative for the formation of the partially dearomatized PNNP* anion (Scheme 2). The addition of this deep red mixture to a blue THF solution of CoCl 2 (THF) 1.5 resulted in a brown/red mixture from which paramagnetic complex 2 was isolated in 74% yield. The 1 H NMR spectrum of 2 in C 6 D 6 at 298 K features much sharper resonances than 1 in the range of 197 to -2.6 ppm.