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Updated: Dec 17, 2025
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Published on: November 12, 2016
The Aluminyl Anion: A New Generation of Aluminium Nucleophile
Jamie Hicks1, Petra Vasko2, Jose M Goicoechea3
1Research School of Chemistry, Australian National University, Sullivans Creek Road, Acton, 2601, Australia.
Abstract:
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.
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