%A AT Normand %A KJ Hawkes %A ND Clement %A KJ Cavell %A BF Yates %O Copyright ? 2007 American Chemical Society. %J Organometallics %T Atom-efficient catalytic coupling of imidazolium salts with ethylene involving Ni-NHC complexes as intermediates: a combined experimental and DFT study %X The coupling reaction between azolium salts (N-heterocyclic carbene precursors) and ethylene, catalyzed by zerovalent nickel complexes, has been investigated using a combination of experiment and density functional theory (DFT). The reaction proceeds via a redox mechanism involving the generation of Nicarbene intermediates. The experimental studies employed an in situ catalyst system, derived from Ni- (COD)2 and a variety of phosphine and N-heterocyclic carbene spectator ligands, to couple 1-propyl-3- methylimidazolium bromide (ionic liquid) and other azolium salts with ethylene. The DFT studies employed the simpler dimethylimidazolium salt to model the reaction. %N 22 %P 5252-5363 %V 26 %D 2007 %I American Chemical Society %R 10.1021/om070181e %L epprod3798