Stephan Hagspiel, Dren Elezi, Merle Arrowsmith, Felipe Fantuzzi, Alfredo Vargas, Anna Rempel, Marcel Härterich, Ivo Krummenacher, Holger Braunschweig

• Doubly base-stabilised cyano- and isothiocyanatoborylenes of the form LL′BY (L = CAAC = cyclic alkyl(amino)carbene; L′ = NHC = N-heterocyclic carbene; Y = CN, NCS) coordinate to group 6 carbonyl complexes via the terminal donor of the pseudohalide substituent and undergo facile and fully reversible one-electron oxidation to the corresponding boryl radical cations [LL′BY]˙+. Furthermore, calculations show that the borylenes have very similar proton affinities, both to each other and to NHC superbases. However, while the protonation of LL′B(CN)Doubly base-stabilised cyano- and isothiocyanatoborylenes of the form LL′BY (L = CAAC = cyclic alkyl(amino)carbene; L′ = NHC = N-heterocyclic carbene; Y = CN, NCS) coordinate to group 6 carbonyl complexes via the terminal donor of the pseudohalide substituent and undergo facile and fully reversible one-electron oxidation to the corresponding boryl radical cations [LL′BY]˙+. Furthermore, calculations show that the borylenes have very similar proton affinities, both to each other and to NHC superbases. However, while the protonation of LL′B(CN) with PhSH yielding [LL′BH(CN)+][PhS−] is fully reversible, that of LL′B(NCS) is rendered irreversible by a subsequent B-to-CCAAC hydrogen shift and nucleophilic attack of PhS− at boron.…