Neutral metal atoms, reactions with alkenes

Two reviews address the reactions of bare transition metal atoms and ions with hydrocarbons in the gas phase and the reactions of monosubstituted alkanes with bare transition metal ions. 2 A study of the reactivity of ground-state, neutral transition metal atoms from the left hand side of the 4d series (Y through Mo) shows that they are unreactive towards linear alkanes but that they will react with cyclopropane and alkenes.3 Atomic metal cations form a 1 1 adduct with tribenzocyclotriyne in a Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance spectrometer. Reaction of molecular oxygen with M(C2H4) results in ligand exchange to M02 for the early first row transition metals. Activation of the O—O bond and product formation is observed for ccnnplexes of Sc+,Ti+andV+.5... 

Neutral a-alkyliron complexes are obtained upon reaction of Na[Cp(CO)2pe] (5) with alkyl halides (9) (Scheme 6), and as with Collman s reagent this occurs in an Sn2 fashion with inversion of coirfiguration at the carbon atom. Epoxides also participate in this reaction, but tertiary alkyl halides are poor substrates. Alternatively, complexes (9) may be prepared by reaction of an appropriate metal alkyl with Cp(CO)2PeX (6). Typically complexes of this type are prepared in order to gain access to the synthetically nseful cationic rf--alkene iron complexes (Section 4.1.2). Also, nucleophilic addition of (5) to heteroatom-snbstituted alkyl halides (snch as methoxymethylchloride or chloromethyl methyl snllide) affords complexes of type (9) that can be converted to cationic... 

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