The reaction of an iridium PNP complex with parahydrogen facilitates polarisation transfer without chemical change† †Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Sample preparation, signal enhancements and raw data. CCDC 1026865. For ESI and crystallographic data in CIF or other electronic format see DOI: 10.1039/c4dt03088e Click here for additional data file. Click here for additional data file.

The short lived pincer complex [(C5H3N(CH2P((t)Bu)2)2)Ir(H)2(py)]BF4 is shown to be active for signal amplification by reversible exchange. This catalyst formulation enables the efficient transfer of polarization from parahydrogen to be placed into just a single molecule of the hyperpolarisation target, pyridine. When the catalysts (1)H nuclei are replaced by (2)H, increased levels of substrate hyperpolarization result and when the reverse situation is examined the catalyst itself is clearly visible through hyperpolarised signals. The ligand exchange pathways of [(C5H3N(CH2P((t)Bu)2)2)Ir(H)2(py)]BF4 that are associated with this process are shown to involve the formation of 16-electron [(C5H3N(CH2P((t)Bu)2)2)Ir(H)2]BF4 and the 18-electron H2 addition product [(C5H3N(CH2P((t)Bu)2)2)Ir(H)2(H2)]BF4.