Diagnosing the Redox Character of Bond Activation by Main Group Centers: Reductive Addition vs Redox-Neutral Insertion as a Case Study

The reductive addition of small molecules to low-valent main-group centers has recently started to emerge, yet their redox labeling is often inferred from qualitative electronegativity arguments and partial-charge trends. Here, we use a recent representative example, i.e., Zn-Zn bond cleavage by Si^II and Al^I main-group carbene analogues as a motivating case study and place it in a broader comparative computational analysis alongside conventionally oxidative H₂ ad