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Updated: Jan 25, 2026

Ligand-Mediated Nucleation and Growth of Palladium Metal Nanoparticles
Published on: June 25, 2018
Metal-catalysed reactions enabled by guanidine-type ligands
Xi-Yang Cui1, Choon-Hong Tan, Dasheng Leow
1Division of Chemistry and Biological Chemistry, School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, 21 Nanyang Link, Singapore 637371. choonhong@ntu.edu.sg jacksonleow@ntu.edu.sg.
Abstract:
Guanidines, which exist widely in nature, have been frequently utilised as strong Brønsted bases in organic chemistry. As ligands, guanidines can have different coordination modes with the metal center. However, the exploitation of these guanidine complexes as catalysts has been much less successful. The anionic counterpart of guanidine, which is known as guanidinate, is also able to function as a ligand. The catalytic activities of metal-guanidinate complexes are of great interest to chemists. The potential of catalytic guanidine or guanidinate metal complexes to catalyse unique chemical transformations is immensely promising. This field is currently being pursued with great interest by synthetic organic chemists. In this review, the representative reactions enabled by guanidine and guanidinate metal complexes are highlighted.
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