Synthesis, Structure and Bonding in Fischer Carbenes

The Fischer carbene complexes contain hetero-atoms in X and/or Y, and were originally synthesised by E O Fischer and Massbol in 1964, by reaction of strong nucleophiles with metal carbonyls, followed by reaction of the resultant 

The Fischer carbene complexes can be described by resonance forms such as (II) and (III), and are characterized by quite long M—C and by rather short C—X bonds, which show some double bond character. The ionic forms give the complexes increased reactivity towards polar reagents, for example to attack by nucleophiles at the carbene carbon. 

Organometallic Chemistry Ch. Elschenbroich and A. Salzer, Organometal-lics , second edition, VCH, Weinheim, 1992 A. Yamamoto, Organotran-sition metal chemistry Wiley-Interscience, New York, 1986 J. P. Collman, L. S. Hegedus, J. R. Norton, and R. G. Finke, Principles and Applications of Organotransition metal chemistry , University Science Books, Mill Valley, CA, 1987. J. E. Huheey, E. A. Keiter and R. L. Keiter Inorganic Chemistry Principles of Structure and Reactivity , Harper Collins College Publisher, fourth edition, New York, 1993. 

Carbonyl syntheses are collected in Inorg. Synths. 28, 1990, ed Robert J. Angelici Inorg. Synths. 34, 2004, ed. John R. Shapley, Wiley-Interscience, Hoboken, NJ further organometallic procedures are collected in other volumes of Inorg. Synths. 

Asymmetric synthesis I. Ojima, Catalytic asymmetric synthesis, Wiley, New York, 2000. Chirality in organometallic chemistry R. D. Adams, ed., J. Organomet. Chem., 2006, 691, 10. 

---