Transition metal catalysts are ubiquitous in the academic and industrial study and application of synthetic chemistry. The properties of these catalysts can be augmented by attaching different groups (ligands) to the metal centre, which change the properties of the resulting transition metal complex. However, the relationship between the structure of the ligands and the properties of the corresponding complex is often poorly understood. This is partly due to the very static view that chemists have of transition metal complexes. This proposal will use neutron-scattering techniques to investigate the flexibility of ligands commonly used for transition metal catalysts, and build a dynamic picture of how these ligands behave in solution, in the absence and in the presence of a transition metal.