Pyridylidene transition metal complexes – An underexplored class of organometallic carbenes

Abstract

Pyridylidene compounds, carbene isomers of related pyridines, remain a fascinating class of intermediates in organic synthesis. Although of high interest as ligands in organometallic and coordination chemistry, this aspect is by far underexplored because of obvious lack of general and efficient synthetic methodologies. This review summarizes the relatively few reported examples of organometallic compounds with pyridylidene ligands. Several important reported examples recently open the way to a promising development of this class of carbenes in organometallic catalysis, biology or materials sciences.