Coordination Chemistry
By virtue of the lone electron pair on carbon, isocyanides serves as ligands in coordination chemistry, especially with metals in the 0, +1, and +2 oxidation states. tert-Butyl isocyanide has been shown to stabilize metals in unusual oxidation states, such as Pd(I).
- Pd(dba)2 + PdCl2(C6H5CN)2 + 4 t-BuNC → 2 + 2 dba + 2 C6H5CN
tert-Butyl isocyanide can form hepta-coordinate homoleptic complexes, despite having a large t-Bu group, which is held far away from the metal center because of the linearity of the M-C≡N-C linkages.
Read more about this topic: Tert-Butyl Isocyanide
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