Access to silver-NHC complexes from soluble silver species in aqueous or ethanolic ammonia

Abstract In this communication, we report the use of aqueous ammonia as original conditions for the metalation of imidazol(in)ium ligands. This reaction, performed in homogenous conditions via a soluble silver-ammine complex is a rapid, scalable and often efficient access to silver-NHC complexes. Moreover, modification of the reported reaction conditions allowed the preparation of unprecedented heteroleptic NHC-Ag-phosphine in case of bulky IPr and SIPr ligands.