Can a carbene do the job of a metal?

INOR 9

Guy Bertrand, gbertran@mail.ucr.edu, UCR/CNRS Joint Research Chemistry Laboratory, UC Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521-0403
We will discuss the synthesis of original non-NHC cyclic carbenes that push upward the electronic and/or steric parameter scales characterizing both phosphine and NHC ligands, with special attention focusing on families of carbenes for which it is possible to precisely tune their stereo-electronic parameters. For the asymmetric versions, we will focus on skeletons that are not accessible with classical NHCs. Our recent results concerning the use of stable carbenes to activate small molecules such as CO, P4, H2 and even NH3 will be presented.