Carbodicarbenes and their Captodative Behavior in Catalysis

Abstract

That of carbones is a new family member in the class of low-valent carbon compounds. Unlike its cousin, the conventional carbene, the carbone possesses two free electron lone pairs. In combination with their unique allene-type structure, they possess stronger sigma-donating ability than conventional carbenes such as NHCs or CAACs. Because of this property, they have a huge potential to become a new class of ligands in organometallic chemistry and catalysis. Although carbodiphosphoranes (CDP) were initially discovered in 1961, nearly 50years were needed to attract the attention of the chemical community with the synthesis of the carbodicarbene (CDC). This Concept paper summarizes developments over the last 10years and future outlooks for this new class of sigma-donors, particularly carbodicarbenes.