Hydrometallation unsaturated hydrocarbons

The addition of metal-hydrogen bonds across carbon-carbon multiple bonds, called hydrometallations, are very important, versatile transformations in organic synthesis. First, they allow the synthesis of new organometallic compounds. The products thus formed may be further transformed into other valuable compounds. The two most important reactions, hydroboration and hydrosilylation, will be treated here in detail, whereas other hydrometallation reactions (hydroalanation, hydro-zirconation) will be discussed only briefly. Hydrostannation, a very important transformation of substituted unsaturated compounds, has no significance in the chemistry of hydrocarbons possessing nonactivated multiple bonds. 

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