Accessing Low-Valent Inorganic Cations by Using an Extremely Bulky N-Heterocyclic Carbene.

The extremely bulky N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC), ITr (ITr=[(HCNCPh3 )2 C:]) featuring sterically shielding umbrella-shaped trityl (CPh3 ) substituents was prepared. This NHC features the highest percent buried volume (%Vbur ) to date, and was used to form a thermally stable quasi one-coordinate thallium(I) cation [ITr-Tl]+ . This TlI adduct and the corresponding lithium complex [ITr⋅Li(OEt2 )]+ are versatile "all-in-one" transmetalation/ligation reagents for preparing low-coordinate inorganic species inaccessible by pre-existing routes.