Coordination Chemistry of Aluminum, Gallium, and Indium at Transition Metals

The current upswing in the interest in organoelement chemistry of Group 13 metals is attributed not least to the establishment of the coordination chemistry of R(a)E fragments (E=Al, Ga, In; a=1, 2) at d-block metals (M). Recently the availability of low-valent organoelement compounds as building blocks for synthesis has substantially enriched the structure chemistry of this class of compounds. The M-E bonding conditions and the question of the significance of M(d(pi))-E(p(pi)) backbonding as well as potential applications in materials science, for example, as single-source precursors for the deposition of thin intermetallic films by chemical vapor deposition, are discussed.