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The Aluminyl Anion: A New Generation of Aluminium Nucleophile
Author(s) -
Hicks Jamie,
Vasko Petra,
Goicoechea Jose M.,
Aldridge Simon
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
angewandte chemie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1521-3757
pISSN - 0044-8249
DOI - 10.1002/ange.202007530
Subject(s) - nucleophile , reactivity (psychology) , electrophile , chemistry , aluminium , reagent , lewis acids and bases , combinatorial chemistry , computational chemistry , metal , organic chemistry , catalysis , medicine , alternative medicine , pathology
Trivalent aluminium compounds are well known for their reactivity as Lewis acids/electrophiles, a feature that is exploited in many pharmaceutical, industrial and laboratory‐based reactions. Recently, a series of isolable aluminium(I) anions (“aluminyls”) have been reported, which offer an alternative to this textbook description: these reagents behave as aluminium nucleophiles. This minireview covers the synthesis, structure and reactivity of aluminyl species reported to date, together with their associated metal complexes. The frontier orbitals of each of these species have been investigated using a common methodology to allow for a like‐for‐like comparison of their electronic structure and a means of rationalising (sometimes unprecedented) patterns of reactivity.