The first magnesium amide trimer, magnesio-1,8-diaminonaphthalene center dot hexamethylphosphoramide: introducing an unprecedented cage assembly incorporating an Mg-3 unit within a N-6 trigonal prism

Doubly deprotonating 1,8-diaminonaphthalene with dibutylmagnesium in the presence of hmpa leads to the formation of the title compound, which establishes a new aggregation state and cage architecture within magnesium amide chemistry; the departure from classical, non-cage, organomagnesium structures can be attributed to the bifunctional and steric design of the involved 'dianion'.