A Mercurial Route to a Cobalt Dihydrogen Complex

摘要

The report by Kubas and co-workers in 1984 of a metal complex with dihydrogen as a ligand heralded the advent of a new era in organometallic and inorganic chemistry. Hydro-genations are a cornerstone of homogeneous catalysis, so reactions of metal complexes with H2 had been studied for decades, but the idea that H2 could bind to the metal as a ligand, without complete cleavage of the H—H bond to make a dihydride, was a surprising concept.