This laboratory activity is a mechanistic exploration of the interactions between electronically deficient organometallic compounds and solvent molecules. Simple kinetics experiments designed to explore the mechanism of C[subscript 60] fullerene-benzene exchange on Ir(([eta][superscript 2]-C[subscript 60])(CO)(Cl)(PPh[subscript 3])[subscript 2] and of the subsequent oxidative addition of benzene producing Ir([eta][superscript 1]-C[subscript 6]H[subscript 5])(H)(CO)(Cl)(PPh[subscript 3])[subscript 2] are proposed as an educational activity for the inorganic chemistry laboratory. (Contains 1 figure and 3 notes.)