Reactivity of heavy carbene analogues towards oxidants: a redox active ligand-enabled isolation of a paramagnetic stannylene.

o-Phenylenediamido Pb(ii) and Sn(ii) complexes react with mesityl azide in analogous C-H activation reactions. The Pb(ii) complex forms a Lewis pair with ONMe3. The Sn(ii) analogue reacts with AgOTf yielding a paramagnetic stannylene; such compounds have been previously observed in situ, but hitherto have not been isolated.