Cooperative catalysis, in which two metals collaborate to facilitate a chemical reaction, is emerging as a promising strategy for replacing expensive noble metal catalysts by those based on cheaper earth abundant metals. However, only relatively few examples of heterobimetallic cooperativity in catalysis are known and understood, hampering the rational use of this strategy. In our work we synthesized a rare nickel-aluminate complex (1) featuring two bridging hydrides, which does not require the use of a specialized ligand for supporting the bimetallic assembly (Figure 1a). Only a handful of NiAl hydride complexes have been reported, with even fewer showing cooperative reactivity or catalysis.[1][2] Gratifyingly, we found that our complex 1 is an active catalyst for the isomerization of alkenes (Figure 1b), a reaction typically caried out with noble metal hydrides.[3] The individual LiAl-hydride, and nickel components show no or poor activity in this reaction, indicating a cooperative mechanism for 1. By studying the stoichiometric and catalytic reactivity of 1 with alkenes and other unsaturated molecules, we provide fundamental insights into this cooperative reaction to shed light on how nickel and aluminium can cooperate in catalytic reactions.

[1] M. M. Shoshani et al., 2024, Dalton Trans, 53(47), 18932–18945.

[2] M. Crimmin et al., 2025, ChemRxiv. 10.26434/chemrxiv-2025-1tdn0

[3] C. Mazet, et al. 2014,  Chem. Commun., 50(69), 9816.