Protonation establishes strong intercomponent interactions, resulting in a stabilized structure. no change was observed when it was heated in the coordinating solvent DMSO at 150 °C for 72 h! A previously reported "stable" interlocked Cu I triazolide 10 was rapidly demetallated (<5 min) in the presence of TFA, suggesting that [Cu a Cu b (5)]PF6 is many orders of magnitude more kinetically stable. Similarly, Sauvage and co-workers reported that Cu I complexes of their seminal bis-phenanthroline catenane , which contains a similar neutral 4N chelate to [Cu a Cu b (5)]PF6, were readily demetallated by KCN, albeit more slowly than the corresponding non-interlocked complexes , and we have previously found that KCN removes Cu I rapidly from similar interlocked structures.