Photochemistry of transition metal hydrides

Photochemical reactivity associated with metal-hydrogen bonds is widespread among metal hydride complexes and has played a critical part in opening up C-H bond activation. It has been exploited to design different types of photocatalytic reactions and to obtain NMR spectra of dilute solutions with a single pulse of an NMR spectrometer. Because photolysis can be performed on fast time scales and at low temperature, metal-hydride photochemistry has enabled determination of the molecular structure and rates of reaction of highly reactive intermediates. We identify five characteristic photoprocesses of metal monohydride complexes associated with the M-H bond, of which the most widespread are M-H homolysis and R-H reductive elimination. For metal dihydride complexes, the dominant photoprocess is reductive elimination of H2. Dihydrogen complexes typically lose H2 photochemically. The majority of photochemical reactions are likely to be dissociative, but hydride complexes may be designed with equilibrated excited states that undergo different photochemical reactions, including proton transfer or hydride transfer. The photochemical mechanisms of a few reactions have been analyzed by computational methods, including quantum dynamics. A section on specialist methods (time-resolved spectroscopy, matrix isolation, NMR, and computational methods) and a survey of transition metal hydride photochemistry organized by transition metal group complete the Review.