Metal–Alane Adducts with Zero-Valent Nickel, Cobalt, and Iron

Coordination complexes that pair a zero-valent transition
metal
(Ni, Co, Fe) and an aluminum­(III) center have been prepared. They
add to the few examples of structurally characterized metal alanes
and are the first reported metallalumatranes. To understand the M–Al
interaction and gauge the effect of varying the late metal, the complexes
were characterized by X-ray crystallography, electrochemistry, UV–Vis–NIR
and NMR spectroscopies, and theoretical calculations. The M–Al
bond strength decreases with varying M in the order Ni > Co >
Fe.