Preparation of Metal Olefin Complexes

As in the case of metal carbonyls, there are several general methods for preparing metal olefin complexes. In this section, a few of the more general methods will be described. 

Reaction of an alcohol with a metal halide. In this method that can be used to obtain Zeise s salt, K[Pt(C2H4)Cl2], the dimer [Pt(C2H4)Cl2]2 is obtained first and the potassium salt is obtained by treating a concentrated solution of the dimer with KC1  

Analogous reactions can be used to prepare numerous other complexes. 

Reaction of a metal halide with an olefin in a nonaqueous solvent. Some reactions of this type are the following  

In the latter of these reactions, butadiene utilizes both double bonds by bonding to two different metal ions to give a bridged complex. 

---