page_title: Transition metal carbene complex
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Transition metal carbene complex / History
context_page_description: A transition metal carbene complex is an organometallic compound featuring a divalent organic ligand. The divalent organic ligand coordinated to the metal center is called a carbene. Carbene complexes for almost all transition metals have been reported. Many methods for synthesizing them and reactions utilizing them have been reported. The term carbene ligand is a formalism since many are not derived from carbenes and almost none exhibit the reactivity characteristic of carbenes. Described often as M=CR₂, they represent a class of organic ligands intermediate between alkyls and carbynes. They feature in some catalytic reactions, especially alkene metathesis, and are of value in the preparation of some fine chemicals.
context_section_description: The characterization of (CO)₅W(COCH₃(Ph)) in the 1960s is often cited as the starting point of the area,
  although carbenoid ligands had been previously implicated. Ernst Otto Fischer, for this and other achievements in organometalic chemistry, was awarded the 1973 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
caption: The first metal carbene complex, Chugaev's red salt, was not recognized as such until decades after its preparation.[4]