Abstract: | The only stable organometallic carbene complexes of silver and copper are those of N‐heterocyclic carbenes, since formally these robust divalent carbon ligands bind only by a σ donor interaction to the metal. A survey of the range of complexes that have now been reported is presented. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heteroatom Chem 13:534–539, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/hc.10098 |