Mechanism and stereochemistry of the water exchange reactions on aqua amine complexes of chromium(III): The role of the 'Spectator' ligands

Water exchange reactions on various aqua amine complexes of chromium(III) were studied with ab initio quantum chemical calculations on the hydrated ions, whereby the solvent was treated as a dielectric continuum. It is concluded that all thermally activated substitution reactions on Cr(super III), Ru(super III) and Rh(super III) proceeded with retention of the configuration.