Organometallic chemistry.(Brief Article)

Alkene coordination to metal complexes provides a potential mechanism for isolation of alkenes from mixtures. [[eta].sup.2]-binding, how ever, tends to be too easily reversed, or involves metal complexes that are too expensive or inaccessible. Work in Science (2001, 291, 106) is therefore innovative in that it shows electrochemically reversible coordination of alkenes to 1,2-enedithiolate complexes in a well-behaved and easily controlled process (see Figure 1). Authors Wang and Steifel meticulously studied the process via UV to obtain kinetic parameters at fixed and variable temperatures, and via electrochemistry. In the latter experiments, rapid electrochemical responses are …