Apart from in hydrosilylation, platinum has traditionally played a limited role in homogeneous catalysis due to its high thermodynamic stability and lower intrinsic reactivity compared to other group 10 metals. However, the emergence of N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) ligands has substantially broadened the catalytic profile of transition metals by enabling access to new mechanistic pathways and enhancing robustness under demanding conditions. This review summarizes advances in Pt-NHC catalysis reported between 2010 and 2025. These transformations encompass hydrosilylation of amides and CO2, hydroboration and diboration, hydroamination, alkyne hydration, hydrogenation, selective alkyne dimerization, Suzuki-Miyaura coupling, arene C-H borylation, and cycloisomerization reactions, in which NHC ligands enhance bond activation, control regio- and stereoselectivity, and stabilize reactive Pt intermediates, including chiral architectures, enabling high enantioselectivity.
Smoczyńska et al. (Tue,) studied this question.