1H-1,2,3-Triazol-5-ylidenes: Readily Available Mesoionic Carbenes

ConspectusClassical carbenes are usually described as neutral compounds featuring a divalent carbon with only six electrons in their valence shell. It was only in 1988 that our group prepared the first isolable example, in which the carbene center was stabilized by a push–pull effect, using a phosphino and a silyl substituent. In the last 30 years, a myriad of acyclic and cyclic push–pull and push–push carbenes, bearing different heteroatom substituents, have been isolated. Among them, the so-called N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs), which include cyclic (alkyl)(amino)carbenes (CAACs), are arguably the most popular. They have found a vast number of applications ranging from catalysis to material science, and even in medicine.In this Account, we focus on the synthesis, structure, electronic properties, coordination, and applications of a different class of stable cyclic carbenes, namely, 1H-1,2,3-triazol-5-ylidenes. In contrast with NHCs and CAACs, these compounds have no reasonable canonical resonance forms ...