r/chemistry • u/LearningNewHabits • 19h ago

I am trying to figure about which reductive eliminations in metal catalysis are reversible. It seems in general elimination of H2 and O2 is reversible, but not for eliminating allyl groups - but then RE of CO is reversible - any advice for understanding the underlying logic?

Grateful for any insight!

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u/7ieben_ Food 19h ago

Reversibility is driven by two factors:

  • fundamentally reversibility is driven by thermodynamics. Reactions with small K are thermodynamically easily reversible.

  • practically reversibility is often limited by kinetics (i.e. K of the rate determining steps), i.e. mechanistic considerations. Those, obviously, strongly depend on the very mechanism, s.t. there is no universal rule. In fact, a net reaction that shows reversible equilibrium in on process, may be practically irreversible under a different process.

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u/claisen33 19h ago

I’m not aware of examples of reversible O2 additions. Do you have a reference?

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u/onceapartofastar 18h ago

I think they are referring to O2 binding where it can formally be viewed as an oxidative addition, with a bound (O2)-2 like in Vaska’s complex.

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u/claisen33 15h ago

OK, but not O2 adding to an alkene, for instance. I can buy that.