There are various types of reactions of metals coordination complexes. These can be described as association and dissociation, substitution, oxidation and reduction, insertion and elimination, and oxidative addition and reductive elimination.
This page aims to categorise each of the above reaction types, and list how the total number of electrons in the complex, the oxidation state of the metal and its d-electron count change over the course of the process. An example of each reaction type is also given.
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Association and Dissociation |
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| Electron Number (EN) | p (eg. 16) | p+2 (eg. 18) |
| Oxidation State (OS) | x | x |
| d-electron number (DN) | n | n |
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Substitution |
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| EN | p | p |
| OS | x | x |
| DN | n | n |
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| Oxidation and Reduction | ||
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| EN | p (eg. 19) | p-1 (eg. 18) |
| OS | x | x |
| DN | n | n |
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| Insertion and Elimination | ||
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| EN | p | p |
| OS | x | x |
| DN | n | n |
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| Oxidative Addition and Reductive Elimination | ||
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| EN | p (eg. 16) | p+2 (eg. 18) |
| OS | x | x+2 |
| DN | n | n-2 |
| Square-planar d8, 16e goes to octahedral 18e. | ||