Springer Organometallic Bonding and Reactivity: Fundamental Studies: 4 (Topics in Organometallic Chemistry)

General The making and breaking of carbon-metal bonds is fundamental to all the p- cesses of organometallic chemistry and moreover plays a significant role in - mogeneous as well as heterogeneous catalysis. This rather blunt statement - phasises the extent to which a proper understanding of the structure, energetics and reactivity of C-M bonds is at the core of the discipline. In order to accept it, a proper definition of the terms involved is required. Quite simply we define the metal-carbon bond in its broadest sense to embrace carbon linked to transiti- metals, lanthanides and actinides, and main group metals. We do not dist- guish between formally covalent single or multiple bonding on the one hand and q-bonding on the other. In the studies to be described in the following chapters, the emphasis will be on transition metal complexes and insofar as the fun- mentals come under scrutiny, simple metal alkyls or related species (metal al- nyl, alkynyl, aryl, or allyl) will play an emphatic part. The central role of metal alkyls and their congeners and especially the role of their metal carbon linkage in homogeneous catalysis may be appreciated by considering some key reaction steps leading to their formation or breakdown. There follows a few prominent examples of transition metal mediated stoichiometric or catalytic processes: - In homogeneous hydrogenation of double bonds, the stepwise reaction of an q2-coordinated alkene with dihydrogen gives first an alkyl metal hydride, and then the decoordinated alkane by elimination. From the Back Cover The making and breaking of carbon-metal bonds is fundamental to all the processes of organometallic chemistry and metal mediated homogeneous or heterogeneous catalysis. The ever expanding scope of highly specific stoichiometric and catalytic transformations or organic substrates involving metals requires a thorough physical and theoretical understanding of fundamental principles of organometallic structure and reactivity. Diffraction experiments form the basis of tailoring the molecular architecture of organometallic compounds for specific functions. Mass spectrometric techniques possess the power to provide direct information on the energetics of transient species generated in the gas-phase. Computational chemistry with ab initio or density functional methods make a reliable numerical assessment of structures and (relative) energies increasingly feasible. Embedding methods, combining quantum chemistry with force field of semiempirical MO treatments, quantum dynamic studies and the computational modelling of solvent effects extend the utility of the basic methods. This volume in the series Topics in Organometallic Chemistry presents a survey by renowned experts of important experimental and theoretical developments to elucidate basic aspects of bonding, energetics, reaction mechanisms, molecular geometries and solid-state structures of organometallic compounds. Written by authors with frontier research expertise in their fields, both experimental and quantum chemical techniques, methodologies, results and interpretations are detailed in a manner suitable for the non-specialist, who seeks state-of-the-art information in the respective field.