Controlling Reactivity-Real-Space Imaging of a Surface Metal Carbene

Metal carbenes are key intermediates in a plethora of homogeneous and heterogeneous catalytic processes. However, despite their importance to heterogeneous catalysis, the influence of surface attachment on carbene reactivity has not yet been explored. Here, we reveal the interactions of fluorenylidene (FY), an archetypical aromatic carbene of extreme reactivity, with a Ag(111) surface. For the first time, the interaction of a highly reactive carbene with a metal surface could be studied by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). FY chemisorbs on Ag(111) with an estimated desorption energy of 3 eV, forming a surface bound silver-carbene complex. The surface interaction leads to a switching of the electronic ground state of FY from triplet to singlet, and to controlled chemical reactivity. This atomistic understanding of the interplay between carbenes and metal surfaces opens the way for the development of novel classes of catalytic systems based on surface metal carbenes.