Organometallic chemistry and its applications in homogeneous catalysis have been dominated by mononuclear transition-metal complexes. The catalytic performance and physico-chemical properties of these mononuclear complexes can be rationally tuned by ligand modification, which has also led to the discovery of new reactions. There is a growing body of evidence implicating the participation of two metals in catalytic processes originally believed to follow monometallic mechanisms. Moreover, the deliberate preparation of bimetallic structures has proven popular because these preorganized structures have many tunable features, such as metal–metal bond order and polarity. These structures can exhibit metal–metal complementarity and allow for multisite activation — reactivity unattainable with truly mononuclear species. This Perspective summarizes the features that are exclusive to bimetallic systems and their roles in substrate activation.

有机金属化学及其在均相催化中的应用一直以单核过渡金属配合物为主。这些单核配合物的催化性能和物理化学性质可以通过配体修饰进行合理调节，这也导致了新反应的发现。越来越多的证据表明，两种金属参与了最初被认为遵循单金属机制的催化过程。此外，双金属结构的有意制备已被证明很受欢迎，因为这些预先组织的结构具有许多可调的特征，例如金属-金属键序和极性。这些结构可以表现出金属 - 金属互补性并允许多位点激活 - 真正的单核物种无法实现的反应性。