The Chemistry of Borylene Complexes

Over the past seven years, complexes of various transition metals with bridged or terminal borylene ligands BR have for the first time been reported and fully characterised. Being closely related to important organometallic compounds, such as carbene, vinylidene, and carbonyl complexes, they have already attracted considerable interest both from experimental and computational points of view. Those studies have provided some detailed information about the nature of the metal−boron bond and about the nature of metal and borylene moieties required for the formation of stable complexes. Various methods for their preparation have been developed and the first studies on their reactivity have demonstrated an interesting chemistry. (© Wiley‐VCH Verlag GmbH, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2003)