Organometallic Chemistry

Compounds with metal–carbon bonds — structure, bonding, and elementary reaction steps.


foundation tier

Organometallic Chemistry — Compounds with metal–carbon bonds — structure, bonding, and elementary reaction steps.

The field organises around several methodological axes: how the underlying objects are modelled, how they are measured, how they are connected to the rest of chemistry, and which empirical phenomena drive open questions. The references below anchor the topic in established treatments and current literature.

Foundations and core methods

A primary reference for this area is The Organometallic Chemistry of the Transition Metals (Crabtree, 2014), which lays out the core concepts that govern organometallic chemistry. The treatment frames the subject within the broader context of inorganic chemistry and motivates the conceptual vocabulary used throughout this page. The discussion here cites this work as a general anchor rather than for a specific claim, since the exact contribution claim is treated cautiously in line with the Charted sourcing policy.

A complementary perspective comes from Organotransition Metal Chemistry: From Bonding to Catalysis (Hartwig, 2010), which provides further background on the methods and results most relevant to organometallic chemistry. Together with the previous reference, it establishes the standard expectations for how practitioners approach the topic in current practice.

Open questions

Open methodological questions in organometallic chemistry include the transferability of the standard methods to harder regimes, the integration of newer measurement and modelling tools, and the connection to neighbouring subfields of inorganic chemistry. Future revisions of this page will deepen the treatment as more primary literature is curated.

Prerequisites

Sources

  • textbook · primary · 2014
    The Organometallic Chemistry of the Transition Metals
    crabtree-2014
  • textbook · primary · 2010
    Organotransition Metal Chemistry: From Bonding to Catalysis
    hartwig-2010

In context

Where this topic sits in the prerequisite graph. Click any node to jump.

Open in full atlas →

Explore

  1. 01

    Elementary Organometallic Steps

    Oxidative addition, reductive elimination, migratory insertion, and β-hydride elimination.

  2. 02

    Metal Carbonyls

    CO-ligated complexes, bonding, and their role in catalysis and bioinorganic chemistry.

  3. 03

    Metallocenes and π-Complexes

    Ferrocene, cyclopentadienyl chemistry, and arene complexes.

  4. 04

    N-Heterocyclic Carbenes

    NHC ligands — design, donor properties, and use across catalysis.

  5. 05

    Pincer Complexes

    Tridentate meridional ligand platforms and their reactivity in dehydrogenation and storage chemistry.

  6. 06

    Metal Alkyl and Hydride Complexes

    Bonding and reactivity of M–C and M–H linkages relevant to catalysis.

  7. 07

    Metal Cluster Chemistry

    Polynuclear metal complexes — Wade’s rules, isolobal analogies, and reactivity.


Review this topic

This page was drafted by an agent and is waiting on expert review. Spotted a wrong prerequisite, a missing concept, a misattributed source, or a factual slip? Tell us — your review opens a tracked issue maintainers act on.