An overview of N-heterocyclic carbenes

摘要

The successful isolation and characterization of an N - heterocyclic carbene in 1991 opened up a new class of organic compounds for investigation. From these beginnings as academic curiosities, N-heterocyclic carbenes today rank among the most powerful tools in organic chemistry, with numerous applications in commercially important processes. Here we provide a concise overview of N-heterocyclic carbenes in modern chemistry, summarizing their general properties and uses and highlighting how these features are being exploited in a selection of pioneering recent studies.%N-异环卡宾是在其含卡宾的环结构内含有一个卡宾和至少一个氮原子的环形分子。这些分子被广泛用作制备基于过渡金属的催化剂的辅助配体，它们本身也会是非常活泼的有机催化剂。由于这些原因，它们被用在一系列合成有机化学应用中，其中包括有重要商业价值的过程。在这篇Review文章中，作者对N-异环卡宾做了简要概述，总结了他们的一般结构和化学性质，然后介绍了这些分子独特的反应性在一系列有趣的有机和有机金属反应中是怎样被利用的。