Due to their electronic properties N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHC) are usable in a broad field of applications, such as ligands in metal-based catalyst systems. In our workgroup we employed NHC's in so-called 'frustrated Lewis pair' systems (FLP) for activation of small molecules, such as H2 and CO2. The intermolecular FLP combination of NHC with B(C6F5)3 can easily split H2 heterolytically. However, its high reactivity leads to the formation of the abnormal carbene-borane adduct, in absence of small molecules. This observation inspired the search for the synthesis of the respective anionic carbene analogs and neutral intramolecular carbene-borane systems. The weakly coordinating, anionic, N-heterocyclic carbenes (WCA-NHC) are used for the synthesis of neutral single-source, carbene-gold catalysts, which can find application in homogeneous transition metal catalysis.These bifunctional compounds are under further investigations about their reaction patterns to study their activity towards small molecule activation and in coordination chemistry.

Novel neutral and anionic carbenes and their reactivity

245th National Meeting (2013)

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