Neutral mesoionic carbenes (MICs) have emerged as an important class of carbene,however they are found in the free form or ligated to only afew d-block ions.Unprecedented f-block MIC complexes [M(N'') 3 {CN(Me)C(Me)N(Me)CH}] (M = U, Y, La, Nd;N '' = N(SiMe 3 ) 2 )a re reported. These complexes were prepared by af ormal 1,4-proton migration reaction when the metal triamides [M(N'') 3 ]w ere treated with the N-heterocyclic olefin H 2 C=C(NMeCH) 2 ,which constitutes an ew,g eneral wayt op repare MIC complexes.Q uantum chemical calculations on the 5f 3 uranium(III) complex suggest the presence of aU =Cd onor-acceptor bond, composed of aM IC!U s-component and aU (5f)!MIC(2p) p-backbond, but for the d 0 f 0 Ya nd La and 4f 3 Nd congeners only MIC!M s-bonding is found. Considering the generally negligible p-acidity of MICs,t his is surprising and highlights that greater consideration should possibly be given to recognizing MICs as potential p-acid ligands when coordinated to strongly reducing metals.Over the past three decades the field of stable singlet Nheterocyclic carbenes (NHCs, I,S cheme 1) has become ab urgeoning area.[1] Within that time,avariety of experimentally viable classes of carbenes related to I have emerged, including anionic-NHCs (II), [2] cyclic alkylaminocarbenes (CAAC, III), [3] and various charge-neutral mesoionic carbenes (MIC, IV-VI), [4] Scheme 1, where for the latter no reasonable canonical resonance forms can be drawn without assigning additional formal charges.Agrowing number of MICs of type IV are known, but it is notable that all examples to date pertain to either the free carbene,o rw ere formed at and remain coordinated to surprisingly few transition metal ions, [4] which contrasts to NHCs that have been coordinated to the majority of metals in the periodic table.[1] Where the bonding of these MICs to metals is concerned, complexes are usually considered to have strong MIC!metal s-donation. Given that strong s-donation, it is surprising that MIC complexes are limited to even only af ew transition metals, but this may reflect the limited range of methodologies to deliberately prepare metal-MIC complexes.Interestingly,any p-bonding components of metal-MIC bonds are,u nlike NHCs,r arely explicitly considered.[5] This is likely because MICs are anticipated to have at best weak p-acceptor character since the carbene is strongly stabilized by N-lone pair and vinyl groups,a se videnced by computational comparisons of different classes of carbenes. [6] We report herein the synthesis and characterization of rare-earth-MIC and uranium-MIC complexes,which are the first f-block-MIC complexes so by definition anew class of fblock-carbene complex. [7] Thec omplexes reported herein were prepared by the formal 1,4-proton migration of an Nheterocyclic olefin (NHO) that represents an ew,g eneral method by which to prepare MIC complexes.I nterestingly, quantum chemical calculations suggest that the 5f 3 uranium-(III) ion engages in aweak p-back-bond to the MIC utilizing a5felectron, whereas the ...