Transition metal-ligand bonding. II

The nature of the bonding of CO, H2O, and NH3 to transition metal atoms is analyzed using the constrained-space-orbital-variation (CSOV) technique. The cooperative effects for Ni(CO)2 are found to be different than those for Ni(H2O)2. The bonding between neutral systems and the positive ions is found to be quite different; NiCO(+) has little pi bonding, while NiCO has strong pi bonding. The positive ion of NiH2O is far more strongly bound than the neutral, while for NiCO the positive ion and neutral are bound by about the same energy.