how can we know the extent of back bonding in metal carbonyl complexes? and how can we determine the strength of carbon-metal bond and carbon-oxygen bond in such complexes?

Dear student,

Metal carbonyls generally have poor solubility with water.

Carbon monoxide bonds to transition metals using "synergic pie back bonding. The bonding has three components, giving rise to a partial triple bond. A sigma bond arises from overlap of nonbonding electron pair on carbon with a blend of d-, s-, and p-orbitals on the metal. A pair of π bonds arises from overlap of filled d-orbitals on the metal with a pair of π-antibonding orbitals projecting from the carbon of the CO. The latter kind of binding requires that the metal have d-electrons, and that the metal is in a relatively low oxidation state (<+2). The π-bonding has the effect of weakening the carbon oxygen bond compared with free carbon monoxide. Because of the multiple bond character of the M-CO linkage, the distance between the metal and carbon is relatively short, often < 1.8 Â, about 0.2 Â shorter than a metal-alkyl bond.

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