Electron Transfer Induced Metal Addition and Ligand Exchange in Organometallic Anion Radical Complexes

Transition metal complexes containing anion radical ligands display a strong tendency towards full coordinative saturation at the singly reduced ligand and towards substitutional activation of coligands at the metal center. Examples involving metal carbonyls show how both of these reactivities can be employed either separately or in a combined fashion for electron transfer catalyzed substitution processes and for the construction of new polynuclear complexes with unusual properties.