Evidence from bond lengths and bond angles for enneacovalence of cobalt, rhodium, iridium, iron, ruthenium, and osmium in compounds with elements of medium electronegativity.

Enneacovalence of neutral atoms can be achieved for Co, Rh, and Ir by promoting some electrons from the nd orbital to the (n + 1)s and (n + 1)p orbitals and for Fe, Ru, and Os by a similar promotion together with the addition of an electron, which may be provided by an electron pair from a singly bonded carbonyl group or other group. The bond lengths and bond angles are predicted by the theory of enneacovalence to be significantly different for the different transition metals. Recently reported experimental values are shown to be in good agreement with the predicted values, providing support for the theory of enneacovalence and the theory of hybrid sp(3)d(5) bond orbitals.