Steric and Electronic Properties of N-Heterocyclic Carbenes (NHC):  A Detailed Study on Their Interaction with Ni(CO) 4

N-heterocyclic carbene ligands IMes (1), SIMes (2), IPr (3), SIPr (4), and ICy (5) react with Ni(CO)(4) to give the saturated tricarbonyl complexes Ni(CO)(3)(IMes) (8), Ni(CO)(3)(SIMes) (9), Ni(CO)(3)(IPr) (10), Ni(CO)(3)(SIPr) (11), and Ni(CO)(3)(ICy) (12), respectively. The electronic properties of these complexes have been compared to their phosphine analogues of general formula Ni(CO)(3)(PR(3)) by recording their nu(CO) stretching frequencies. While all of these NHCs are better donors than tertiary phosphines, the differences in donor properties between ligands 1-5 are surprisingly small. Novel, unsaturated Ni(CO)(2)(IAd) (13) and Ni(CO)(2)(I(t)()Bu) (14) compounds are obtained from the reaction of…