title: Facile B-H bond activation of borane by stable carbenoid species.
abstract: Stable nucleophilic carbene compounds have recently been shown to be able to mimic in some instances the reactivity of metal fragments in the reaction of unactivated E-H bonds (E = H, R3Si, NH2, R2P). However, the insertion into a B-H bond of the strongly Lewis acidic BH3 molecule has never been observed at a single C atom or even at a metal fragment. Our results show that designed stable, highly electrophilic carbenoid fragments in compounds 4 and 6 can achieve this reactivity in a controlled manner. Density functional theory calculations corroborated the experimental results on the presently designed systems as well as the lack of reactivity on nucleophilic carbenes.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Hétéroéléments et Coordination, Ecole Polytechnique, CNRS, Route de Saclay, 91120 Palaiseau, France.
authors.forename: Hadrien
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Heuclin
authors.forename: Samuel Y-F
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.forename: Xavier F
authors.initials: XF
authors.lastname: Le Goff
authors.forename: Cheuk-Wai
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: So
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mézailles