This yellow-orange, air-stable compound is a widely used precursor to homogeneous catalysts.

The resulting chiral complexes are capable of asymmetric hydrogenation.

[3] A related but still more reactive complex is chlorobis(cyclooctene)rhodium dimer.

The dimer reacts with a variety of Lewis bases (L) to form adducts with the stoichiometry RhCl(L)(COD).

The Rh2Cl2 core is also approximately planar,[4] in contrast to the highly bent structure of cyclooctadiene iridium chloride dimer where the dihedral angle is 86°.