Contributions to the chemistry of carbenemetal chemistry

This paper provides a brief review of our researches on carbenemetal complexes. The main emphasis is on saturated heterocyclic bis(amino)carbene ligands, referred to here as electron-rich olefin- or ERO-derived ligands, as outlined in Sections 2 and 3. The following Section deals with Fischer-type carbene complexes, based on reactions of a transition metal substrate with an imidoyl chloride, Vilsmeyer reagent or Eschenmoser salt. The researches of Sections 2, 3, 4 have resulted in the synthesis, characterisation and selected reactions (including as catalysts) of carbene complexes of V, Cr, Mo, W, Mn, Re, Fe, Ru, Os, Co, Rh, Ir, Ni, Pd, Pt and Au in various oxidation states. A final Section describes some more recent work on C[(NCH2But)2C6H4–1,2], its adducts with M[(NCH2But)2C6H4–1,2] (M = Si, Ge, Sn, or Pb) and the biphenyl- bis(carbene), [C{NCH2But}2C6H3–3,4]2.

Graphical abstractOur researches on carbenemetal chemistry have employed as carbenoids electron-rich olefins (EROs) such as 1, salts such as 2, or unsaturated carbenes including 6. The work has been published in about 60 papers and has dealt with more than 500 carbene complexes of 16 transition metals in various oxidation states; topics included synthesis, structure and reactivity.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide