It is well known that donation of electron density from a metal atom back into an empty orbital on a coordinating ligand, such as an alkene, weakens the π bond. Now, it has been shown that in a metal–diborene complex, π-backdonation involves bonding π-orbitals on the ligand and leads to B–B bond strengthening.
References
Power, P. P. Nature 463, 171–177 (2010).
Himmel, H.-J., Manceron, L., Downs, A. J. & Pullumbi, P. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 124, 4448–4457 (2002).
Hardman, N. J., Wright, R. J., Phillips, A. D. & Power, P. P. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 41, 2842–2844 (2002).
Power, P. P. Chem. Rev. 99, 3463–3503 (1999).
Su, J., Li, X.-W., Crittendon, C. & Robinson, G. H. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 119, 5471–5472 (1997).
Wright, R. J., Brynda, M. & Power, P. P. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 45, 5953–5956 (2006).
Knight, L. B. Jr, Kerr, K., Miller, P. K. & Arrington, C. A. J. Phys. Chem. 99, 16842–16848 (1995).
Wang, Y. et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 129, 12412–12413 (2007).
Braunschweig, H. et al. Science 336, 1420–1422 (2012).
Braunschweig, H. et al. Nature Chem. 4, 563–567 (2012).
Braunschweig, H., Damme, A., Dewhurst, R. D. & Vargas, A. Nature Chem. 5, 115–121 (2013).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Himmel, HJ. Metal-reinforced bonding. Nature Chem 5, 88–89 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.1554
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.1554
- Springer Nature Limited