Important milestone on the way to transition metal catalysis with aluminum

Addition of ligands, such as dimethylaminopyridine in this case, breaks the dimeric structure of the cation and the lone aluminum atom shows its strong acceptor character. Chemists successfully synthesize a cationic, low-valent aluminum complex salt via metathesis The chemists Philipp Dabringhaus , Julie Willrett and Ingo Krossing from the Institute of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry at the University of Freiburg have succeeded in synthesizing the low-valent cationic aluminum complex [Al(AlCp*)₃]⁺ by a metathesis reaction. The team presents their research work in the journal Nature Chemistry . "In chemistry, cationic low-valent aluminum compounds are highly sought after due to their potential transition metal-like ambiphilic reactivity. However, numerous previous attempts to synthesize cationic low-valent aluminum compounds by oxidative or reductive methods have been largely unsuccessful," Krossing explains. So far, he said, there has been only one example of a cationic, low-valent aluminum compound, but it cannot be prepared by rational synthesis. "We now show that there is an unexpectedly easy access to low-valent aluminum complexes with metathesis after all," Krossing says.