Carbenes Made Easy: Formation of Unsymmetrically Substituted N-Heterocyclic Carbene Complexes of Palladium(II), Platinum(II) and Gold(I) from Coordinated Isonitriles and their Catalytic Activity

From palladium(II) or platinum(II) bis(isonitrile) complexes and from gold(I) isonitrile complexes, both easily available from simple precursors, the corresponding mono-N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) complexes could be obtained selectively in good yields under very mild conditions. The reagents are simple beta-chloroammonium salts in the presence of a weak base. Unsymmetric NHC complexes are accessible. Thus over only two steps from simple metal precursors a broad variety of NHC complexes is available, the method is ideal to quickly assemble catalyst libraries. The palladium complexes are active pre-catalysts in Suzuki cross-coupling even with the additional isonitrile ligand on palladium.