Preparation and reactivity of compounds containing a carbon-xenon bond

The chemistry of carbon-xenon compounds is one of the newest in the field o f organoelement chemistry. The specific character of carbon-xenon chemistry can be ascribed to the fact that in all Xe-II and Xe-IV compounds hyperval ent bonds-symmetrical or asymmetrical- with a high partial positive charge on Xe are present. Different from the class of high-oxidation-state organom etallic derivatives of d metals, C-Xe compounds have low coordination numbe rs and, additionally, contain three or two lone electron pairs. It is the i ntent of this review to present the still limited number of synthetic appro aches to C-Xe compounds and to organize their presently known reactivities into categories. It is hoped that C-Xe compounds can be introduced in the f uture as precursors in synthetic organic and organoelement chemistry.