N-Heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) are cyclic carbenes bearing at least one R-amino
substituent. 1 The most common subclasses of NHCs are represented in Chart 1. Early work …

The chemistry of heterocyclic carbenes has experienced a rapid development over the last
years. In addition to the imidazolin‐2‐ylidenes, a large number of cyclic diaminocarbenes …

The success of homogeneous catalysis can be attributed largely to the development of a
diverse range of ligand frameworks that have been used to tune the behavior of various …

The organometallic chemistry of N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) has experienced
explosive development during the last few years, and the topic remains the main focus of …

Although N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) have been known as ligands for organometallic
complexes since the 1960s, these carbenes did not attract considerable attention until …

Cyclometalation refers to the transition metal-mediated activation of a CR bond to form a
metallacycle comprising a new metal-carbon σ bond (Scheme 1). 1, 2 Typically, the reaction …

The continuous growth of N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) chemistry is a fact that is pointed
out in all the introductions of the publications regarding NHCs that have appeared in the …

Three different structural classes of NHC ligands can be distinguished: normal (nNHC),
abnormal (aNHC), alternatively called mesoionic (MIC), and remote (rNHC). General …

This personal account summarizes our work, beginning with the discovery of the first stable
carbene in 1988 up until the recent isolation of mesoionic carbenes. It explains why we have …

The discovery two decades ago of metal-free stable carbenes, especially imidazol-2-
ylidenes [N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs)], has led to numerous breakthroughs in organic …