Metal carbonyl 18-electron complexes is sometimes catalysed by catalytic amounts of oxidants, via electron-transfer. Metal carbonyls react with reducing agents such as metallic sodium or sodium amalgam to give carbonylmetalate (or carbonylate) anions: For iron pentacarbonyl, one obtains the tetracarbonylferrate with loss of CO: Mercury can insert into the metal-metal bonds of some polynuclear metal carbonyls: The CO ligand is often susceptible to attack by nucleophiles. For example, trimethylamine oxide and bistrimethylsilylamide convert CO ligands to CO and CN, respectively. In the "Hieber base reaction", hydroxide ion attacks the CO ligand to give a metallacarboxylic acid, followed by the release of carbon
Mercury beating heart changes in surface tension, it is very similar in mechanism to other chemical oscillators such as the Belousov–Zhabotinsky reaction, which has several intermediate redox reactions driven by the oxidation of malate by bromine. The mercury beating heart was first observed by Carl Adolf Paalzow in 1858. Jöns Jakob Berzelius is reported to have used electrodes. Mercury beating heart The mercury beating heart is an electrochemical redox reaction between the elements mercury, iron and chromium. The reaction causes a blob of mercury in water to oscillate. The observeable reaction demonstrates an effect of a non-homogeneous electrical double layer. It is often