A Brief Survey of Our Contribution to Stable Carbene Chemistry

This personal account summarizes our work, beginning with the discovery of the first stable carbene in 1988 up until the recent isolation of mesoionic carbenes. It explains why we have moved our focus from acyclic to cyclic carbenes and shows that these stable species are not limited to the role of ligand for transition metals but that they are also powerful agents for the activation of small molecules, and for the stabilization of highly reactive diamagnetic and paramagnetic species.