What is Oxidative Fusion?

Oxidative -fusion reactions are shown by certain types of metal-carborane complexes.In oxidative-fusion two open-cage (eg- pyramidal) ligands are face coordinated to a transition metal which is subsequently eliminated.The ligands merging face to face to form a single large polyhedral system.Other carborane ligands C2B4H7^- and CH3C2B4H6^- ions can also be oxidatively fused and other transition metal ions like Ni²⁺ can be employed.However in these cases metal sandwich intermediates have not been isolated.In spite of this oxidative fusion is also observed in small metallacarboranes which undergoes dimerization to give several isomers belonging to diferent structural classes.