Abstract
Publisher Summary This chapter discusses various reactions of stable nucleophilic carbenes with main group compounds. Special interest is associated with carbenes that feature the attachment of donor groups to the carbenic carbon as they behave as nucleophiles and, in some instances, can be isolated. Stable nucleophilic carbenes that are capable of forming isolable complexes with a variety of main group species in oxidation states ranging from +1 to +6. The majority of the complexes that have been reported thus far possess 1:1 stoichiometry; however, there are several instances of 2:1 complexation and one example of a 3:1 complex. Although, in principle, it is possible to write double-bonded (carbene)CuEXn canonical forms to describe the interactions between carbenes and main group entities (EXn), in the stable nucleophilic carbene complexes the bonding is predominantly of the donor–acceptor type—namely (carbene)C→EX n . As such, the chemistry of these two-electron donor carbenes bears a strong-resemblance to that of electron-rich phosphines.
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