Catalytic Applications of Oxidative Addition of Alkyl Halides to Transition Metal Complexes

Abstract

The oxidative addition of alkyl halides is a reaction undergone by coordinatively unsaturated transition metal complexes with concommitant increase in oxidation number and coordination number. In its simplist form, a metal in oxidation state (n) and coordination number (m) adds alkyl halides to give a new complex of oxidation number (n + 2) and coordination number (m + 2) (Equation 1).