Analysis of accurate experimental and theoretical structure factors of diamond and silicon reveals that the contraction of the core shell due to covalent bond formation causes significant perturbations of the total charge density that cannot be ignored in precise charge density studies. We outline that the nature and origin of core contraction/expansion and core polarization phenomena can be analyzed by experimental studies employing an extended Hansen-Coppens multipolar model. Omission or insufficient treatment of these subatomic charge density phenomena might yield erroneous thermal displacement parameters and high residual densities in multipolar refinements. Our detailed studies therefore suggest that the refinement of contraction/expansion and population parameters of all atomic shells is essential to the precise reconstruction of electron density distributions by a multipolar model. Furthermore, our results imply that also the polarization of the inner shells needs to be adopted, especially in cases where second row or even heavier elements are involved in covalent bonding. These theoretical studies are supported by direct multipolar refinements of X-ray powder diffraction data of diamond obtained from a third-generation synchrotron-radiation source (SPring-8, BL02B2).

We will outline that the sign and magnitude of J(Si,H) coupling constants provide a highly sensitive tool to measure the extent of Si-H bond activation in nonclassical silane complexes. Up to now, this structure-property relationship was obscured by erroneous J(Si,H) sign determinations in the literature. These new findings also help to identify the salient control parameters of the Si-H bond activation process in nonclassical silane complexes.

Accurate X-ray diffraction experiments allow for a reconstruction of the electron density distribution of solids and molecules in a crystal. The basis for the reconstruction of the electron density is in many cases a multipolar expansion of the X-ray scattering factors in terms of spherical harmonics, a so-called multipolar model. This commonly used ansatz splits the total electron density of each pseudoatom in the crystal into (i) a spherical core, (ii) a spherical valence, and (iii) a nonspherical valence contribution. Previous studies, for example, on diamond and α-silicon have already shown that this approximation is no longer valid when ultrahigh-resolution diffraction data is taken into account. We report here the results of an analysis of the calculated electron density distribution in the d(0) transition metal compounds [TMCH3](2+) (TM = Sc, Y, and La) at subatomic resolution. By a detailed molecular orbital analysis, it is demonstrated that due to the radial nodal structure of the 3d, 4d, and 5d orbitals involved in the TM-C bond formation a significant polarization of the electron density in the inner electronic shells of the TM atoms is observed. We further show that these polarizations have to be taken into account by an extended multipolar model in order to recover accurate electron density distributions from high-resolution structure factors calculated for the title compounds.

The nature of the interaction between chloromethanes CH 4-n Cl n and Pt(II) complexes has been studied by highpressure X-ray diffraction and infrared spectroscopy in combination with DFT calculations. In case of electron rich complexes such as d 8 -Pt(btz-N,N′)(phenyl)L with L = phenyl, Cl, Br and btz = 2,2′-Bi-5,6-dihydro-4H-1,3-thiazine stable chloroform adducts with bridging hydrogen atoms in the η 1 (C-H)Pt moieties were isolated which display highly activated C-H bonds. This activa-The activation of carbon-hydrogen bonds is usually hampered by their rather apolar covalent character and large bond dissociation energies. For example the C-H bond dissociation enthalpies in simple alkanes such as methane [DH 298 = 439.28(13) kJ mol -1 ] are virtually as large as in the H 2 molecule [DH 298 = 435.998(13) kJ mol -1 ] displaying the prototype of a strong covalent bond. [1] As a consequence, alkanes are neither good electron donors nor good acceptors since the σ(C-H) bonding orbital is low in energy while the antibonding σ*(C-H) orbital is high lying. Hence, C-H bonds are generally considered to be chemically rather inert and their selective activation remains a challenge in organometallic chemistry. [2][3][4] This obstacle can be overcome by metal-assisted C-H bond activation in cases where an alkane ligand coordinates either end-on (η 1 ) or side-on (η 2 ) to a metal-ligand fragment ML n (Scheme 1). [5,6] In case of electron-rich late transition metal complexes two bonding scenarios with short M···H br -C contacts are usually observed for methane and halomethane d 8 -Pt complexes, where H br denotes a bridging hydrogen atom. These are illustrated in case of the theoretical model systems (CH 3 ) 2 Pt(NH 3 )(CH 4 ) 1a and (CH 3 ) 2 Pt(NH 3 ) 2 ·(CHCl 3 ) 1b in Scheme 1. We note, that all DFT calculations were performed with ADF using the BP86 functional, the ZORA for the descrip- [a]

We outline in this combined experimental and theoretical NMR study that sign and magnitude of J(Si,H) coupling constants provide reliable indicators to evaluate the extent of the oxidative addition of Si-H bonds in hydrosilane complexes. In combination with experimental electron density studies and MO analyses a simple structure-property relationship emerges: positive J(Si,H) coupling constants are observed in cases where M → L π-back-donation (M = transition metal; L = hydrosilane ligand) dominates. The corresponding complexes are located close to the terminus of the respective oxidative addition trajectory. In contrast negative J(Si,H) values signal the predominance of significant covalent Si-H interactions and the according complexes reside at an earlier stage of the oxidative addition reaction pathway. Hence, in nonclassical hydrosilane complexes such as CpTi(PMe)(HSiMeCl) (with n = 1-3) the sign of J(Si,H) changes from minus to plus with increasing number of chloro substituents n and maps the rising degree of oxidative addition. Accordingly, the sign and magnitude of J(Si,H) coupling constants can be employed to identify and characterize nonclassical hydrosilane species also in solution. These NMR studies might therefore help to reveal the salient control parameters of the Si-H bond activation process in transition-metal hydrosilane complexes which represent key intermediates for numerous metal-catalyzed Si-H bond activation processes. Furthermore, experimental high-resolution and high-pressure X-ray diffraction studies were undertaken to explore the close relationship between the topology of the electron density displayed by the η(Si-H)M units and their respective J(Si,H) couplings.