Acid-base reactions, organomagnesium

Organometallics react with this sink by addition to the multiple bond (path Ad r). The more covalent, less reactive organometallics, like R2Cd, react very slowly with almost all of these sinks, whereas organomagnesiums, RMgX, and organolithiums react quickly. Complexation of the metal ion to the Y heteroatom catalyzes this reaction. Organometallics react much faster as nucleophiles with polarized multiple bonds than as bases with the adjacent C-H bonds, (carbon-acid, carbon-base proton transfer is slow). C=Y example ... 

Chiral amines have been transformed into chiral imines RCH=NG, which are usually in equilibrium with the tautomeric enamines. These enamines undergo asymmetric alkylations, and the best results are often obtained with ethers 1.58 or with valine derivatives 1.59 (R = i-Pr, R = tert-Bu) [169, 173,253] in the presence of bases. Enamines, lithioenamines and zinc enamines derived from imines are very potent Michael donors that often participate in highly stereoselective reactions [161, 162, 169, 173, 254, 257, 260, 262, 267], Chiral imines can suffer very selective addition reactions of organomagnesium reagents [139, 253, 254] and allyl-metals [154, 258]. They also suffer stereoselective Ti-catalyzed silylcyanation [268], Strecker reaction [266], and [2+2] or [4+2] cydoadditions [131, 256, 263], When the reaction produces an imine product, the chiral auxiliary is recovered after acidic hydrolysis. However, when an amine is obtained as the product, as is often the case from phenethylamine derivatives, the chiral residue is cleaved by hy-drogenolysis. In such cases, the chiral amine is not, strictly speaking, a chiral auxiliary. But these processes will be discussed anyway because of their importance in asymmetric synthesis. 

Organomagnesium and organolithium compounds are such strong bases that they will react immediately with any acid that is present in the reaction mixture—even with very weak acids such as water and alcohols. When this happens, the organometallic compound is converted into an alkane. If D2O is used instead of H2O, a deuterated compound will be obtained. 

The final area that can be discussed involves the kinetics and mechanism of reactions of Grignard reagents with ketones, nitriles, Schiff bases, and weak acids. This area is intimately tied to the problem of the structure of the organomagnesium reagent itself and this in turn centers around the values of the equilibrium constants for the processes... 

Summary Novel poly(silylenemethylene)s have been prepared by ring-opening polymerization of 1,3-disilacyclobutanes followed by a protodesilylation reaction with triflic acid. Reactions of the triflate derivatives with organomagnesium compounds, LiAlH4, amines or alcohols gave functional substituted and branched poly(silylene-methylene)s, which may serve as suitable precursors for silicon carbide and Si/C/N-based materials. 

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