Organometallic complex compounds,part 51. Ligand property controlled CO-insertion in nickel complexes: Separation of electronic and steric effects

Summary The influence of twenty phosphorus-containing ligands on the CO insertion with four-coordinated Ni¹¹ complexes as starting reagents is reported. Quantitative separation of the electronic and steric effects by a multilinear regression analysis (55% electronic and 45% steric influence) is presented together with a three dimensional representation. An increase in donor-capacity favours CO insertion and an increase in steric hindrance leads to a decrease in the fraction of the corresponding ketone.