An N-heterocyclic carbene as a bidentate hemilabile ligand: a synchrotron X-ray diffraction and density functional theory study

The N-heterocyclic carbene ligand IMes was shown by synchrotron crystallography and DFT computations to adopt a hemilabile bidentate coordination mode in CpM(CO)2(IMes)+B(C6F5)4–(M = Mo, W), with a C=C bond of one mesityl weakly coordinated to the metal.