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Updated: Aug 21, 2025

Isolating Free Carbenes, their Mixed Dimers and Organic Radicals
Published on: April 19, 2019
CAAC-IPr*: easily accessible, highly sterically-hindered cyclic (alkyl)(amino)carbenes
Wenchao Chu1, Tongliang Zhou1, Elwira Bisz2
1Department of Chemistry, Rutgers University, 73 Warren Street, Newark, New Jersey 07102, USA. michal.szostak@rutgers.edu.
Abstract:
IPr* (IPr* = 1,3-bis(2,6-bis(diphenylmethyl)-4-methylphenyl)imidazol-2-ylidene) has emerged as a powerful highly hindered and sterically-flexible ligand platform for transition-metal catalysis. CAACs (CAAC = cyclic (al-kyl)(amino)carbenes) have gained major attention as strongly electron-rich carbon analogues of NHCs (NHC = N-heterocyclic carbene) with broad applications in both industry and academia. Herein, we report a merger of CAAC ligands with highly-hindered IPr*. The efficient synthesis, electronic characterization and application in model Cu-catalyzed hydroboration of alkynes is described. The ligands are strongly electron-rich, bulky and flexible around the N-Ar wingtip. The availability of various IPr* and CAAC templates offers a significant potential to expand the existing arsenal of NHC ligands to electron-rich bulky architectures with critical applications in metal stabilization and catalysis.
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