Activation of molecular hydrogen by a singlet carbene through quantum mechanical tunneling

Carbenes are among the few metal-free molecules that are able to activate molecular hydrogen. Whereas triplet carbenes have been shown to insert into H2 through a two-step mechanism that at low temperature is assisted by quantum mechanical tunneling (QMT), singlet carbenes insert in concerted reactions with considerable activation barriers, and are thus unreactive towards H2 at cryogenic temperatures. Here we show that 1-azulenylcarbene with a singlet ground state readily inserts into H2 , and that QMT governs the insertion into both H2 and D2 . This is the first example that shows that QMT can also be important for singlet carbenes inserting into dihydrogen.