Routes to pincer and chelate carbene complexes of Pd, Rh, and Ir include double geminal CH activation, metallation, and CH activation. Abnormal binding via imidazole C5 can occur, and ion pairing can strongly influence C2 vs. C5 binding. Prior ligand binding via pyridine N before metallation is not essential. Computational methods are used extensively, for example, to compare N vs. C binding in...

The effect of chelating phosphines was tested on the structure and pH-dependent stability of nickel-cysteine binding. (1,2-Bis(diphenylphosphino)ethane (dppe) and 1,1,1-tris[(diphenylphosphino)methyl]ethane (triphos) were used with three different cysteine derivatives (L-cysteine, Cys; L-cysteine ethyl ester, CysEt; cystamine, CysAm) to prepare complexes of the form (dppe)NiCysR(n+) and (tripho...