This article presents a retrospective account of our group’s heterobinuclear (NHC)Cu-[MCO] catalyst design concept (NHC = N-heterocyclic carbene, [MCO] = metal carbonyl anion), the discovery of its application towards UV-light-induced dehydrogenative borylation of unactivated arenes, and the subsequent pursuit of thermal reaction conditions through structural modifications of the catalysts. The account highlights advantages of using a hypothesis-driven catalyst design approach that, while often fruitless with regard to the target transformation in this case, nonetheless vastly expanded the set of heterobinuclear catalysts available for other applications. In other words, curiosity-driven research conducted in a rational manner often provides valuable products with unanticipated applications, even if the primary objective is viewed to have failed. 1 Introduction to Heterobinuclear Catalysts for C–H Borylation 2 Pursuit of Thermal Borylation Conditions 3 Catalysts beyond Copper Carbenes 4 Conclusions

中文翻译：

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用非贵重的异双金属催化剂进行 C-H 硼化反应：假设驱动的设计主题变化

本文回顾了我们小组的异双核 (NHC)Cu-[MCO] 催化剂设计概念（NHC = N-杂环卡宾，[MCO] = 金属羰基阴离子），发现其在紫外光诱导脱氢反应中的应用未活化芳烃的硼酸化，以及随后通过催化剂结构改性追求热反应条件。该帐户强调了使用假设驱动的催化剂设计方法的优势，尽管在这种情况下通常无法实现目标转化，但极大地扩展了可用于其他应用的异双核催化剂集。换句话说，以理性方式进行的好奇心驱动的研究通常会提供具有意外应用的有价值的产品，即使主要目标被视为失败。