Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Organometallic chemistry

Carbyne anions get to work

Nature Synthesis volume 2, pages 317–318 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

The isolation of a rare example of a highly reactive low-valent carbon compound — a carbyne anion complex — enables the discovery of low-valent carbon transfer reactions.

Now, writing in Nature Synthesis, Liu Leo Liu and co-workers report a new type of highly reactive carbon compounds — namely, carbyne anions — isolated as copper complexes, and their use in low-valent carbon transfer reactions2. Coordination of low-valent carbon species to metals, and in particular transition metals, is well established for carbenes and carbynes. The stability, and hence ability to isolate such carbene and carbyne complexes resulted in their widespread use in organic and polymer synthesis — for example, as key reagents in alkene and alkyne metathesis reactions. According to bonding analysis by experimental and computational studies, the copper species prepared by Liu and co-workers are best described as anionic carbyne complexes, rather than metallacarbenes. Reactivity studies show that the complexes engage in unprecedented low-valent carbon transfer reactions.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Overview of the synthesis, structure and reactivity of highly reactive carbon compounds.

References

  1. Wang, Z., Herraiz, A. G., del Hoyo, A. M. & Suero, M. G. Nature 554, 86–91 (2018).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Wei, R., Wang, X.-F., Hu, C. & Liu, L. L. Nat. Synth. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44160-022-00225-y (2023).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Igau, A., Grutzmacher, H., Baceiredo, A. & Bertrand, G. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 110, 6463–6466 (1988).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Dielmann, F. et al. Science 337, 1526–1528 (2012).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Liu, L., Ruiz, D. A., Munz, D. & Bertrand, G. Chem 1, 147–153 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Hu, C. et al. Chem 8, 2278–2289 (2022).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Despagnet, E. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 41, 2835–2837 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Hill, A. F. & Kong, R. Y. Chem. Commun. 53, 2032–2035 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Author notes

  1. Twitter: @dbouriss; @LBPB_Lab

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire Hétérochimie Fondamentale et Appliquée, CNRS/Université de Toulouse, Toulouse, France

    Didier Bourissou

Authors
  1. Didier Bourissou
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Didier Bourissou.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Bourissou, D. Carbyne anions get to work. Nat. Synth 2, 317–318 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44160-023-00260-3

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44160-023-00260-3

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing