A carbyne can occur as a short-lived reactive intermediate. For instance, fluoromethylidyne (CF) can be detected in the gas phase by spectroscopy as an intermediate in the flash photolysis of CHFBr.
Carbynes can act as trivalent ligands in complexes with transition metals, in which they are connected to a metal by the three non-bonded electrons in the –C group. Examples of such coordination compounds are , WBr(CO)(2,2'-bipyridine)≡C-aryl and WBr(CO)(PPh)≡C-NR. Such a compound can be obtained by the reaction of tungsten hexacarbonyl W(CO) with lithium diisopropylamide to form (PrN)(OLi)C=W(CO). This salt is then oxidized with either oxalyl bromide or triphenylphosphine dibromide, followed by addition of triphenylphosphine. Another method is to treat a methoxy metal carbene with a Lewis acid.