自從第一個穩定的氮異環碳烯被發現之後，許多利用氮異環碳烯結構當作配位基的金屬錯合物就有爆炸性的發展和高度的研究興趣。這些研究不僅僅是想要了解金屬碳烯鍵的基本性質，更重要的是源自於對金屬碳烯錯合物的同相催化能力之應用的好奇心。
在本研究中，我們首先合成一系列新穎的含氮雜環碳烯咪唑鹽類，其側邊臂上具有含氮配位基，並成功地將咪唑鹽類與氧化銀反應，順利的合成出穩定的含氮雜環碳烯銀金屬錯合物3。接著，藉由這些銀金屬錯合物3進行碳烯轉移反應，進而得到含氮雜環碳烯銅金屬錯合物4以及含氮雜環碳烯金金屬錯合物5，並且經由核磁共振、質譜分析、X光單晶繞射分析達到結構的確立以及呈現出分子內部的互相影響的結果，我們發展了一個有效率的方法來合成含氮雜環碳烯銀、銅和金金屬錯合物。
而最近幾年，含氮雜環碳烯與金屬錯合物在催化的應用方面已被廣泛的發展。因此我們將所合成的含氮雜環碳烯銅金屬錯合物4作為催化試劑，進行一系列的芳基化反應的探討，結果顯示，在低劑量的催化劑下極有相當好的產率，因此咖啡因藉由芳基化反應催化可以獲得不同種類的天然物以及藥品且具有高產率，對醫療以及藥物上合成更加簡單。

Since the discovery of a stable N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC), there has been a spectacular explosive interest in employing NHC platforms as ancillary ligands for various metal complexes. The interest is stemmed from a desire of not only to understand the fundamentals behaviors of the metal-carbene bonding, but the emerging applications in small homogeneous catalysis.
In our research effort, we have prepared a series of novel imidazolium salts precursors for amino-linked N-heterocyclic carbene ligands. These amino-linked imidazolium salts successfully reacted with Ag2O to afford air-stable silver carbene complexes 3. Silver carbene complexes 3 could then act as a carbene transfer agent for the synthesis of copper carbene complexes 4 or gold carbene complexes 5. These metal complexes have been characterized by multinuclear (1H, 13C) NMR spectroscopy, MS measurements and identity of those complexes are confirmed by single-crystal X-ray diffraction.
In addition, we investigate the copper carbene complexes catalyzed arylation reaction and proved these copper carbene complexes shows promising activity, and the results have validated the importance of the cooperating effect invoked by t-Butyl moiety to assist the efficiency of this catalysis. Arylation reaction of caffeine can be catalyzed to afford variety of natural products and pharmaceuticals on the high yield.

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