Lability and Inertness in Octahedral Complexes

An analysis in terms of the relative energies of the precursor and reaction intermediate predicts lability for octahedral complexes with populated eg levels, in line with the experimental observations. 

We can categorize reactions in a number of ways. So far, we have done so in terms of rate (how fast or slow). This approach, however, tells us nothing about what is happening in a reaction or how a particular reaction occurs. We shall now define reactions in terms of what happens. We shall explore examples of the following reactions in Chapter 6, when describing examples of chemical synthesis in coordination chemistry. 

Inorganic reactions involving metal complexes fall into three major categories  

reactions involving the inner coordination sphere of the complex  

reactions involving the oxidation state of the central metal and 

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