With the increase in volume, velocity and variety of information, researchers can find it difficult to keep up to date with the literature in their field. This interdisciplinary field has the potential to provide answers to problems and challenges faced in catalysis, synthetic organic chemistry and the development of therapeutic agents and new materials. Providing an invaluable volume, Organometallic Chemistry Volume 41 contains analysed, evaluated and distilled information on the latest in organometallic chemistry research including developments and applications of Lewis acidic boron reagents, masked low-coordinate main group species in synthesis and the diiron centre. With the increase in volume, velocity and variety of information, researchers can find it difficult to keep up to date with the literature in their field. This interdisciplinary field has the potential to provide answers to problems and challenges faced in catalysis, synthetic organic chemistry and the development of therapeutic agents and new materials. Providing an invaluable volume, Organometallic Chemistry Volume 41 contains analysed, evaluated and distilled information on the latest in organometallic chemistry research including developments and applications of Lewis acidic boron reagents, masked low-coordinate main group species in synthesis and the diiron centre. With the increase in volume, velocity and variety of information, researchers can find it difficult to keep up to date with the literature in their field. This interdisciplinary field has the potential to provide answers to problems and challenges faced in catalysis, synthetic organic chemistry and the development of therapeutic agents and new materials. Providing an invaluable volume, Organometallic Chemistry Volume 41 contains analysed, evaluated and distilled information on the latest in organometallic chemistry research including developments and applications of Lewis acidic boron reagents, masked low-coordinate main group species in synthesis and the diiron centre. Organometallic Chemistry Volume 41 By Graeme W. Bowling, Arne Ficks, James T. Fleming, Conrad A. P. Goodwin, Lee J. Higham, Graeme Hogarth, Ji-Yun Hu, James R. Lawson, David J. Liptrot, Rebecca L. Melen, David P. Mills, Jun-Long Zhang, Paul Elliott, Ian J. S. Fairlamb, Jason M. Lynam, Nathan J. Patmore The Royal Society of Chemistry Copyright © 2017 The Royal Society of Chemistry All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-78262-416-5 Contents Preface Ian Fairlamb, Jason Lynam, Paul Elliott and Nathan Patmore, v, Recent developments and applications of Lewis acidic boron reagents James R. Lawson and Rebecca L. Melen, 1, Masked low-coordinate main group species in synthesis David J. Liptrot, 28, The diiron centre: Fe2(CO)9 and friends Graeme Hogarth, 48, Taddol and Binol-derived chiral phosphonites in asymmetric catalysis Graeme W. Bowling, James T. Fleming, Arne Ficks and Lee J. Higham, 93, Gold-catalysed C–F bond activation Ji-Yun Hu and Jun-Long Zhang, 110, Silylamides: towards a half-century of stabilising remarkable f-element chemistry Conrad A. P. Goodwin and David P. Mills, 123, CHAPTER 1 Recent developments and applications of Lewis acidic boron reagents James R. Lawson and Rebecca L. Melen DOI: 10.1039/9781782626923-00001 One field of organometallic chemistry that has seen great advancements over the last 20 years is that of main-group chemistry, in particular boron chemistry, that has led to a wealth of new discoveries. In this review, we will focus on modern advancements in this growing field, such as interesting uses of firmly established reagents, such as tris(pentafluorophenyl) borane, B(C6F5)3, which has demonstrated extensive applications in a wide variety of chemistry. In addition to this, a number of novel Lewis acidic boranes and borocations have been recently synthesised, which are often structurally tailored for a specific role such as borylation reactions or use in main-group catalysis. The reactions of these compounds are broad in scope, inclusive of borylation substitution reactions, addition of B–E across p-bonds and applications in pharmaceuticals and materials science. In addition, boron reagents often constitute the Lewis acid moiety of frustrated Lewis pairs (FLPs), an area of main-group chemistry that has also expanded rapidly, with numerous applications notably in main-group catalysis. Newly discovered Lewis acidic boron reagents and their implementations are proving to be an appealing and exciting applications-based field as more advances are discovered. 1 Introduction to Lewis acidic boron compounds Boron reagents are often employed as Lewis acids due to their strongly electrophilic nature granted by a vacant p-orbital into which electrons can be received. Many neutral boranes have been synthesised and utilised, such as trialkyl-, triaryl- and trihalo-boranes, although as the field of boron chemistry has grown, more complex and structurally diverse