Electrochemical oxidation of the nickel(ii) complex of the macrocyclic ligand 1.4,7-triazacyclononane-N,N',N"-triacetate (nota3-) in aqueous solution yields the nickel(rii) complex, which undergoes fast base-promoted chemical decomposition. This decomposition process was studied by cyclic voltammetry, ESR and electronic spectroscopy, and gave first-order kinetics relative to the nickel(l1r) complex. This is compatible with intramolecular reduction of the metal centre by the ligand, followed by rapid decomposition of the radical species formed. The ligand fragmentation process was analysed by proton NMR spectroscopy of the electrolysed solution of the complex.The chemistry of metal complexes in less common oxidation states has been the subject of increasing interest in inorganic chemistry, due to the important role that these compounds play in catalytic and biological processes. Specifically, nickel-(I) and -(III) complexes have received considerable attention since it was recognized that nickel in those oxidations states participates in the catalytic cycles of several enzymes.Previous work from our laboratory focused on factors that control the availability of nickel-(I) and -(III) oxidation states with pseudo-macrocyclic Schiff-base ligands2 Polyazacycloalkanes are part of another family of ligands that allow the formation of several metal complexes in various oxidation states, whose stability may be varied over a substantial range through structural modifications of the macrocyclic frame~o r k .~'~' In particular triazamacrocycles and N-functionalized derivatives have been extensively inve~tigated,~.' leading to the isolation of rather stable trivalent nickel complexes. 5-7 The stabilization of Ni"' is attributed to the full octahedral coordination with a minimum steric demand afforded by these ligands.6b*8 One of these stable nickel(rr1) complexes was obtained after chemical oxidation of the nickel(1r) complex of 1,4,7-triazacyclononane-N,N',N"-triacetate (nota3 -).' The isolated [Ni"'(nota)] reveals a crystal structur.e with a six-coordinate centre around nickel, resulting from a distorted octahedral geometry generated by a N303 donor set.Just before the isolation of this complex, the electrochemical behaviour of Na[Ni"(nota)] in aqueous 0.05 mol dm-3 KCl was studied by Wieghardt et al. ,9 showing a reversible one-electron transfer process, that was attributed to the oxidation of Ni" to Ni"'. Formation of [Ni"'(nota)] in 0.05 mol dm-3 KCI aqueous solution by oxidation of the corresponding nickel(r1) complex by pulse-radiolytic techniques was reported and it was claimed that these species are stable in deaerated solution for at least 24 h at 25 O C 9 However, since then, no further characterization of this new species formed in solution has been performed.More recently Fabbrizzi et aLBb have shown in their electrochemical studies, with N a~i " ( n o t a ) ] , that the ligand (with an electric charge of 3 -) favours access to this unusually high oxidation state due to a very favourable entropy term, that refle...