N‐Heterocyclic Carbenes Reduce and Functionalize Copper Oxide Surfaces in One Pot
Alex J. Veinot, abrar al-rashed, J. Daniel Padmos, Ishwar Singh, Dianne Lee, Mina R. Narouz, Paul A. Lummis, Christopher J. Baddeley, Cathleen M. Crudden, J. Hugh Horton
Abstract
Abstract 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.