page_title: Transition metal alkyl complexes
section_title: Scope
hierarchical_section_title: Transition metal alkyl complexes / Scope
caption_attribution_description: Structural formula (annotated with bond lengths and angles) of the hexamethyltungsten molecule, W(CH3)6.
context_page_description: Transition metal alkyl complexes are coordination complexes that contain a bond between a transition metal and an alkyl ligand. Such complexes are not only pervasive but are of practical and theoretical interest.
context_section_description: Most metal alkyl complexes contain other, non-alkyl ligands.  Great interest, mainly theoretical, has focused on the homoleptic complexes.  Indeed, the first reported example of a complex containing a metal-sp³ carbon bond was the homoleptic complex diethylzinc.  Other examples include hexamethyltungsten, tetramethyltitanium, and tetranorbornylcobalt.
  Mixed ligand, or heteroleptic, complexes containing alkyls are numerous.  In nature, vitamin B12 and its many derivatives contain reactive Co-alkyl bonds.
caption: Hexamethyltungsten is an example of a "homoleptic" (all ligands being the same) metal alkyl complex.[3]
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