Functionalised N-Heterocyclic Carbene Complexes

N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) have found increasing use as reagents for a range of organic transformations and in asymmetric organocatalysis. The performance of these molecules can be improved and tuned by functionalisation. Functionalised carbenes can anchor free carbenes to the metal site, introduce hemilability, provide a means to immobilise transition metal carbene catalysts, introduce chirality, provide a chelate ligand or bridge two metal centres. NHC can be attached to carbohydrates and campher, derived from amino acids and purines, they can be used as organocatalysts mimicking vitamin B1 or as weak “solvent” donors in lanthanide chemistry. Functionalised N-Hetero…