The geometries of and bonding in certain transition metal complexes

Abstract

Two topics in structural transition metal chemistry are discussed. First the Chatt-Dewar theory for the bonding between metals and unsaturated ligands such as carbon disulphide, oxygen and acetylene is developed; it is shown that the molecular orbital wave function contains wave functions belonging to the excited states of the individual fragments and the theory is then correlated with some recent structural results. Secondly, the trans-influence of a number of ligands in several platinum(II) complexes is described and related to their electronegativities and ligand-metal p(σ) overlaps.