The hydrogenation and hydroformylation of alkenes by metal carbonyl hydrides has been studied extensively for some time. Such radicals tend to favor hydrogenation products over hydroformylation products, while the reverse is true for simple non-conjugated alkenes. So far, alkenes have been studied with cobalt, manganese, and rhodium carbonyl hydrides.
Few reagents are able to activate or displace chloride or bromide from such compounds.
Such compounds have half-lives in the environment on the order of decades, mainly due to the hardiness of the aromatic ring system and its associated halogens. Other similar complexes are yet to be studied, in the search for a truly catalytic transition metal complex capable of hydrogenolyzing aromatic halides smoothly under mild conditions.