Dihydrogen complexes overview

Why are transition metals so well suited for catalysis A complete treatment of this critical question lies well beyond the scope of this book, but we can focus on selected aspects of bond activation and reactivity for dihydrogen and alkene bonds as important special cases. Before discussing specific examples that involve formal metal acidity or hypovalency, it is convenient to sketch a more general localized donor-acceptor overview of catalytic interactions in transition-metal complexes involving dihydrogen49 (this section) and alkenes (Section 4.7.4). 

For an overview of complexation of molecular dihydrogen to metals, see G. J. Kubas, Metal Dihydrogen and Sigma-Bond Complexes Structure, Theory, and Reactivity (New York, Kluwer Academic, 2001). 

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