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Updated: Mar 5, 2026

Isolating Free Carbenes, their Mixed Dimers and Organic Radicals
Published on: April 19, 2019
Synthesis and Reduction of Sterically Encumbered Mesoionic Carbene-Stabilized Aryldihaloboranes
Merle Arrowsmith1,2, Julian Böhnke1,2, Holger Braunschweig1,2
1Institute for Sustainable Chemistry & Catalysis with Boron, Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074, Würzburg, Germany.
Abstract:
Sterically hindered, in situ generated 1,3,4-substituted 1,2,3-triazol-5-ylidene mesoionic carbenes (MICs) were employed to stabilize a number of aryl- and heteroaryldihaloboranes, as well as the first MIC-supported diborane. Reduction of borane adducts of the 1-(2,6-diisopropylphenyl)-3-methyl-4-tert-butyl-1,2,3-triazol-5-ylidene ligand with KC8 in non-coordinating solvents led to intramolecular C-H- and, C-C-activation at an isopropyl residue of the supporting ligand. DFT calculations showed that each of these activation reactions proceeds via a different isomer of a borylene intermediate.
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