Abstract: | The N‐heterocyclic plumbylene Fe{(η5‐C5H4)NSiMe3}2Pb:] is in equilibrium with an unprecedented dimer in solution, whose formation involves the cleavage of a strong C?H bond and concomitant formation of a Pb?C and an N?H bond. According to a mechanistic DFT assessment, dimer formation does not involve direct PbII insertion into a cyclopentadienyl C?H bond, but is best described as an electrophilic substitution. The bulkier plumbylene Fe{(η5‐C5H4)NSitBuMe2}2Pb:] shows no dimerization, but compensates its electrophilicity by the formation of an intramolecular Fe?Pb bond. |