Low valent aluminum and gallium compounds - structural variety and coordination modes to transition metal fragments

The chemistry of low valent aluminum and gallium compounds is a very topical area of research. Accompanying the preparative challenge in synthesizing novel types of main group cluster compounds and transition metal complexes with aluminum and gallium ligands, an area of chemistry is being exploited, which requires new insight on the description of chemical bonds. Therefore, not only are routes to these compounds and their structures described here, but thoughts on the description of bonding are presented as well. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.