Recent Advances in the Chemistry of N-Heterocyclic-Carbene-Functionalized Metal-Nanoparticles and Their Applications

Metal-nanoparticles (M-NPs) have been widely applied in catalysis, imaging, sensing and medicine. One particularly active area of this research is the modification of the surface of the nanoparticles to prevent aggregation through the coordination of ligands. N-Heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) have emerged as suitable ligands for this purpose due to their affinity to the metals and their strongly electron donating nature. A number of rationally designed NHC-modified M-NPs have been developed using strategies based on metal complex decomposition and ligand exchange. Herein, NHC-stabilized M-NPs based on a range of transition metals, especially the recent advances, were summarized.