A good catch: N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) form stable adducts with nitrous oxide (N2O) under mild reaction conditions. The adducts display unique reactivity as evidenced by an alkylation reaction which leads to a rupture of the NN bond.
Rosario Scopelliti, Kay Severin, Farzaneh Fadaei Tirani, Andrzej Sienkiewicz, Cristian Pezzato, Zhaowen Dong