Photochemical strategies for investigating organometallic intermediates relevant to catalysis mechanisms

This paper presents an overview of the use of time resolved spectroscopic t echniques for the investigation of reactive organometallic intermediates ge nerated by laser flash photolysis. Specific examples will be drawn from mec hanistic studies in these laboratories in which time-resolved IR and time-r esolved optical detection have been used to probe the reactivities and stru ctures of intermediates relevant to the homogeneous catalytic activation of dihydrogen and carbon monoxide. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.