Synthesis and Chemical Properties of Metallabenzynes

Metallabenzynes are an interesting class of metallaraomatics. They can be regarded as transition-metal analogs of benzyne in which a C atom is replaced by an isolobal transition metal fragment. The chemistry of this class of compounds has received much recent attention. A series of metallabenzynes containing osmium and rhenium have been isolated. It has also been demonstrated both experimentally and theoretically that metallabenzynes can have properties of both aromatic organic compounds and organometallic compounds. For example, metallabenzynes, like organic aromatic compounds, could undergo electrophilic substitution reactions to give new metallabenzynes; react with nucleophiles to generate metallabenzene species through addition of nucleophiles at the carbyne carbons of metallabenzynes and undergo reductive elimination to give carbene complexes