"Give me five" - an amino imidazoline-2-imine ligand stabilises the first neutral five-membered cyclic triel(I) carbenoides.

We present the first cyclic five-membered triel(i) carbenoides E(AmIm) for E = Ga, In, Tl; AmIm = amido imidazoline-2-imine, which fill the current gap between four- and six-membered triel(i) carbenoides supported by HGiso and HNacNac. Ga(AmIm) can act as a strong σ-donor ligand in transition metal complexes, while the intermediacy of the Al(i) carbenoide Al(AmIm) is rationalised based on the isolation of an Al(iii) insertion product.