The synthesis, spectroscopic, and X-ray structural studies of acrylic acid complexes of iron and ruthenium tetracarbonyls are reported. In addition, the deprotonated eta(2)-olefin bound acrylic acid derivative of iron as well as its alkylated species were fully characterized by X-ray crystallography. Kinetic data were determined for the replacement of acrylic acid, acrylate, and methylacrylate for the group 8 metal carbonyls by triphenylphosphine. These processes were found to be first-order in the concentration of metal complex with the rates for dissociative loss of the olefinic ligands from ruthenium being much faster than their iron analogues. However, the ruthenium derivatives afforded formation of primarily mono-phosphine metal tetracarbonyls, whereas the iron complexes led largely to trans-di-phosphine tricarbonyls. This difference in behavior was ascribed to a more stable spin crossover species Fe-3(CO)(4) which undergoes rapid CO loss to afford the bis phosphine derivative. The activation enthalpies for dissociative loss of the deprotonated eta(2)-bound acrylic acid ligand were found to be larger than their corresponding values in the protonated derivatives. For example, for dissociative loss of the protonated and deprotonated acrylic acid derivatives of iron(0) the Delta H-double dagger values determined were 28.0 +/- 1.2 and 34.1 +/- 1.5 kcal.mol(-1), respectively. Density functional theory (DFT) computations of the bond dissociation energies (BDEs) in these acrylic acids and closely related complexes were in good agreement with enthalpies of activation for these ligand substitution reactions, supportive of a dissociative mechanism for olefin displacement. Processes related to catalytic production of acrylic acid from CO2 and ethylene are considered.