The objective of Mechanisms of Inorganic and Organometallic Reactions is to provide an ongoing critical review of the literature concerned with the mechanisms of reactions of inorganic and organometallic compounds. The main focus is on reactions in solution, although solid state and gas phase studies are included where they provide relevant mechanistic insight. Each volume covers an eighteen month literature period, and this, the seventh volume in the series, deals with papers published during July 1988 through December 1989. Where appropriate, there are references to earlier work, and also to specific sections in previous volumes. Coverage continues to span the whole area as comprehensively as possible in each volume, and although it is impossible be absolutely complete, every effort is made to include all the important for it to published work that is relevant to the elucidation of reaction mechanisms. Numerical data are reported in the units used by the original authors, and they are only converted to common units when making comparisons. The basic format of earlier volumes is retained to facilitate tracing progress over several years in a particular topic; this can now be done for more than a decade worth of research. In the last volume, ligand reactivity of both coordination and organometallic compounds were brought together in Chapter 12, and, in response to numerous positive comments from readers, this arrangement has been maintained. There have been some similar suggestions about oscillating reactions, and this topic may have a separate section in the next volume.