The new well-defined and air-stable ortho-xylyl-linked N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) Pd complexes (2a–d) have been synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, IR spectroscopy, and single crystal X-ray diffraction studies. The palladium atom in the complex 2a lies on a crystallographic mirror plane and can be described as having a square-planar coordination environment with the carbene atoms of the ...