Premium
N‐Heterocyclic Carbenes Reduce and Functionalize Copper Oxide Surfaces in One Pot
Author(s) -
Veinot Alex J.,
AlRashed Abrar,
Padmos J. Daniel,
Singh Ishwar,
Lee Dianne S.,
Narouz Mina R.,
Lummis Paul A.,
Baddeley Christopher J.,
Crudden Cathleen M.,
Horton J. Hugh
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
chemistry – a european journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.687
H-Index - 242
eISSN - 1521-3765
pISSN - 0947-6539
DOI - 10.1002/chem.202002308
Subject(s) - carbene , copper , oxide , formamide , x ray photoelectron spectroscopy , metal , chemistry , inorganic chemistry , materials science , polymer chemistry , organic chemistry , chemical engineering , catalysis , engineering
Benzimidazolium hydrogen carbonate salts have been shown to act as N‐heterocyclic carbene precursors, which can remove oxide from copper oxide surfaces and functionalize the resulting metallic surfaces in a single pot. Both the surfaces and the etching products were fully characterized by spectroscopic methods. Analysis of surfaces before and after NHC treatment by X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy demonstrates the complete removal of copper(II) oxide. By using 13 C‐labelling, we determined that the products of this transformation include a cyclic urea, a ring‐opened formamide and a bis‐carbene copper(I) complex. These results illustrate the potential of NHCs to functionalize a much broader class of metals, including those prone to oxidation, greatly facilitating the preparation of NHC‐based films on metals other than gold.