Remarkable room-temperature insertion of carbon monoxide into an aluminum-carbon bond of tri-tert-butylaluminum.

Room-temperature reaction of carbon monoxide with tri-tert-butylaluminum at atmospheric pressure yields the dimeric tert-butylacyl complex [tBu2AlC(O)tBu]2 (1). This unprecedented CO insertion into an aluminum-carbon bond is apparently made possible by the three-coordinate aluminum center in the tri-tert-butylaluminum starting material.