Highly reactive carbenes as ligands for main group element fluorides. Syntheses and applications

• Carbene complexes of main group element fluorides are reviewed.
• This includes the procedure of oxidative addition using 2,2-difluoro-1,3-dimethylimidazolidine and related precursors.
• Applications of carbene complexes of phosphorus(V) fluorides are reviewed.

In this review carbene complexes of main group fluorides are summarized. So far, the vast majority of those complexes were obtained by 1:1 addition reactions using free carbene. In 2012, the utilization of 2,2-difluoro-1,3-dimethylimidazolidine (DFI) and analogs were reported as carbene sources for main group fluorides. Further studies demonstrated the versatility of this procedure and allowed the straightforward synthesis of new classes of compounds which otherwise could not be obtained via the free carbene route. Furthermore, examples of functionalized materials based on carbene complexes of phosphorus(V) fluorides are summarized here as well.

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