Germylenes with carbene

As mentioned above, cationic phosphenium is isoelectronic with carbene, silylene, germylene, stannylene, and plumbylene, because the central element has lone pair electrons and a vacant p orbital as well as two substituents. Therefore, their transition metal complexes have attracted considerable attention. It might be of special interest to compare cationic phosphenium complexes with silylene complexes because phosphorus and silicon are both situated in the third row of the periodic table. 

The lower heats of formation of silylenes compared with carbenes translate into somewhat lower, albeit similar, reactivity. There is a general lesson here that slowing down the reactions of carbene-like species makes possible processes like dimerization that are more or less impossible for carbenes. We have already seen that slowing down their rearrangements allows the observation of intermolecular reactions of alkylsilylenes not observed for alkylcarbenes. The dimerization of silylenes to disilenes, discovered in the gas phase [36], was employed to brilliant effect by West and coworkers in the condensed phase synthesis of isolable disilenes [37]. While these were not the first disilenes, silylene dimerization opened the way for the preparation of many new molecules, including digermenes from the dimerization of germylenes [38]. 

Reaction of the digermene 57 with diazomethane or trimethylsilyldiazomethane yields the azadigermiranes 58 via a [2+l]-cycloaddition (Equation (119)).158 Coupling of a cyclic carbene and a cyclic germylene furnishes the zwitter-ionic species 59 (Equation (120)).159... 

Like silylenes and carbenes germylenes are isolobal with phosphines and may function as ligands to transition metal complexes. (Adapted from Bazlnet et ah, 2001)... 

While carbenes are found with both singlet and triplet ground electronic states, only singlet silylenes and germylenes are well documented. 

The nitrogen heteroatoms in imidazole and some closely related heterocycles can stabilize a carbene center at the 2-position (97AG(E)2162). Thus, 1,3-disubstituted imidazole-2-ylidenes (163)-(170), l,3-dimesitylimidazoline-2-ylidene (171), 1,3,4-triphenyl-1H-1,2,4-triazole-5-ylidene (172), and their silylene (173) and germylene (174) analogues are stable (in the absence of oxygen and moisture) solids with definite melting points, which can be recrystallized from appropriate hydrocarbon solvents. The exception is carbene (163) which is an unstable liquid however, it is stable in solution. 

In addition to carbenes and nitrenes, organometallic species such as germylenes 107 have been utilized in [2 + 1] cycloadditions and, upon reaction with thioketones, afforded the corresponding thiagermiranes which are very stable and do not decompose even when heated to their melting point438 (equation 124). 

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