Stable Heavier Carbene Analogues

The special issue of Chemical Reviews focused on the chemical characteristics of those heavier carbene analogue compounds that were stable and isolated under ambient conditions in an inert atmosphere. It specifically focused on highlighting the chemistry of stable metallylenes. These metallylenes were synthesized through the reduction of MIV species as the precursor or a substitution reaction of MII halides, such as SnCl2. SnCl2 was used as the starting material with an organometallic species such as RLi or ArLi as the nucleophile. The metallyklenes were synthesized through these processes as they had lower oxidation states and belonged to the MII species. It was also found that there were several possible reduction reactions of the R4M species leading to the formation of the R2M species in the first synthesis process.