N‐Heterocyclic Carbene Ligands and Iron: An Effective Association for Catalysis

Abstract

Abstract Although iron has been known and widely used in coordination and organometallic chemistry for decades and N‐heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) have also been used for about half a century, their combination surprisingly did not become a hot topic in chemistry until this last decade. This review presents several recent and stimulating developments in homogeneous catalysis done mainly using iron/NHC‐based catalysts. Of particular interest are the roles of iron/NHC complexes in cross‐coupling Kochi reactions, CC bond formation reactions and hydrofunctionalization, and more particularly in hydrosilylation. Our review summarizes the key developments in these fields.