Straightforward access to chalcogenoureas derived from N-heterocyclic carbenes and their coordination chemistry

Dalton Trans. 2020 Sep 14;49(34):12068-12081. doi: 10.1039/d0dt02558e. Epub 2020 Aug 21.

Abstract

Chalcogen-based urea compounds supported by a wide range of N-heterocyclic carbenes are synthesised and fully characterised. Coordination of selenoureas is further explored with Group 11 transition metals to form new copper, gold and silver complexes. Single crystal X-ray analyses unambiguously establish the solid-state coordination of these complexes and show that the geometry of a complex is highly influenced by a combination of electronic properties - mainly π-accepting ability - and steric hindrance of the ligands, as well as the nature of the metal, affording a variety of coordination behaviours. In this report, we investigate these phenomena using several experimental methods.