Title: oxidative addition
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - oxidative addition
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.O04367
Status: current

Definition
The insertion of a metal complex into a covalent bond involving formally an overall two-electron loss on one metal or a one-electron loss on each of two metals, i.e. \[\rm{L}_{n}\rm{M}^{m}+\rm{XY}\rightarrow \rm{L}_{n}\rm{M}^{m+2}\left(\rm{X}\right)\left(\rm{Y}\right)\] or \[2\rm{L}_{n}\rm{M}^{m}+\rm{XY}\rightarrow \rm{L}_{n}\rm{M}^{m+1}\left(\rm{X}\right)+\rm{L}_{n}\rm{M}^{m+1}\left(\rm{Y}\right)\] In radical chemistry, the term is used to indicate a radical addition to a carbon–carbon double bond, under oxidative conditions. For example: 

Related Terms
- covalent bond: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/C01384
- insertion: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/I03058
- radical: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/R05066

Source
- PAC, 1994, 66, 1077. 'Glossary of terms used in physical organic chemistry (IUPAC Recommendations 1994)' on page 1149 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac199466051077)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/O04367/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/O04367/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/O04367/xml

Citation: Citation: 'oxidative addition' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.O04367
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Accessed: 2026-01-13T02:38:05+00:00