Synthesis of N-Heterocyclic Carbene Platinum Complexes and Application in the Organic Reaction

N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHC) have long been recognized as important ligands in organometallic chemistry, and NHC can form stable metal-carbon bonds with metals because of their stong sigma-donating ability that provides the possibility to develop platinum NHC complexes as catalysts. N-heterocyclic carbene-platinum (Pt-NHC) complexes have been widely applied as catalysts in numerous catalytic organic reactions, in which the Pt-NHC system shows excellent catalytic performance and features with stable physical and chemical properties. On the other hand, the Pt-NHC complexes could be easily modified with different functional groups by modification of the stereo-effect and the corresponding electronic properties. In past years, it provides an effective method to solve the problem encountered in the process of using the traditional catalyst, and has become one of the hot topics in the organometallic chemistry and catalytic chemistry. In this manuscript, we summarize the recent progress in the synthesis of Pt-NHC complexes and their application in the catalytic organic transformations, including hydrosilylation of olefins/alkynes and ketones, isomerization reaction, hydroamination of unactivated olefins, borylation reactions of olefins, and hydration reaction of alkynes. Furthermore, the catalytic mechanism of all these reactions has been discussed. At last, the deficiencies as well as the perspective of Pt-NHC complexes have been also highlighted.