Lithium alkoxide alkyllithium compounds

The proposed mechanism of this reaction is based on the nucleophilic attack of the alkyllithium compound at the carbenoid carbon atom or at the a-lithiooxy carbene. The dilithium compound 102 gives the alkene 103 by the loss of lithium oxide (equation 56). When an alkoxy residue, which is a better leaving group than U2O, is offered in the a-position of the corresponding dilithium compound, the elimination of lithium alkoxide takes place instead of lithium oxide. This is illustrated by the reaction of epoxide 104 that delivers the allylic alcohol 105 upon treatment with n-butyllithium (equation The... 

Alkyllithium compounds as well as polymer-lithium associate not only with themselves but also with other alkalimetal alkyls and alkoxides. In a polymerization initiated with combinations of alkyllithiums and alkalimetal alkoxides, dynamic tautomeric equilibria between carbon-metal bonds and oxygen-metal bonds exist and lead to propagation centers having the characteristics of both metals, usually somewhere in between. This way, one can prepare copolymers of various randomness and various vinyl unsaturation. This reaction is quite general as one can also use sodium, rubidium or cesium compounds to get different effects. 

Quantitative Analysis of Alkyllithium Initiator Solutions. Solutions of alkyllithiiim compounds frequendy show turbidity associated with the formation of lithium alkoxides by oxidation reactions or lithium hydroxide by reaction with moisture. Although these species contribute to the total basicity of the solution as determined by simple acid titration, they do not react with allylic and benzylic chlorides or ethylene dibromide rapidly in ether solvents. This difference is the basis for the double titration method of determining the amount of active carbon-bound lithium reagent in a given sample (55,56). Thus the amount of carbon-bound lithium is calculated from the difference between the total amount of base determined by acid titration and the amount of base remaining after the solution reacts with either benzyl chloride, allyl chloride, or ethylene dibromide. 

The unique feature of the alkyllithium compounds that makes them useful as diene initiators is their character as exceedingly powerful bases yet they are soluble in organic solvents and quite thermally stable. Alkyllithium compounds are sufficiently basic to add to hydrocarbon monomers. However, lithium salts of stabilized anions, such as acetylide and fluorenyl anions, are too weakly basic to add to such double bonds. Similarly, alkoxides and mercaptides fail to react with hydrocarbon monomers, but lithium alkyl amides react analogously to alkyllithium compounds. 

The functionalization of PSLi with GPTMS was also performed in the presence of lithium alkoxides, specifically, lithium 2,3-dimethyl-3-pentoxide. It is known that lithium alkoxides cross-associate with alkyllithium compounds in solution. The cross-association would be expected to... 

The most direct method of preparing telechelic polydienes utilizes a dilithium initiator which is soluble in hydrocarbon solution [220, 221]. The most expedient method of preparing such a dilithium initiator is to react two moles of an alkyllithium compound with a divinyl compound which will not homopolymerize. Unfortunately, because of the association behavior of organolithium compounds in hydrocarbon media [176-178], many potential systems fail because they associate to form an insoluble network-like structure [221]. Expediencies such as addition of Lewis bases can overcome solubility problems of dilithium initiators, however, such additives tend to produce high amounds of 1,2- and 3,4-microstructures (see Table IV). One exception is the adduct formed from the addition of two equivalents of sec-butyllithium to l,3- i5 (l-phenylethenyl)benzene as shown in Eq. (79) [222,223]. Although this is a hydrocarbon-soluble, dilithium initiator, it was found that biomodal molecular weight distributions are obtained monomodal distributions can be obtained in the presence of lithium alkoxides or by addition of Lewis base additives [224,225].This initiator has also been used to prepare telechelic polymers in high yields [226]. 

Alkyl Derivatives. - Alkyllithium compounds have continued in 2000 to be a very useful synthetic tool. They have been employed in many transformations both in their own right and in order to afford new lithium reagents in situ. For example, their reaction with heavier Group 1 metal alkoxides is known to result in metal interchange and the formation of heavy metal alkyls this in turn leads to a marked increase in reaetivity. The synthesis of these so-called superbases has lately been the subject of review. ... 

Finally, the addition of the carbanion of 1-chloroalkyl p-tolyl sulfoxides 154 to carbonyl compounds gave the adducts 155, which were treated with alkyllithium such as f-C4H9Li to afford the one-carbon homologated carbonyls compounds 158, from their lithium enolate forms 157, having an alkyl group at the a-position, via the carbenoid /S-alkoxides 156 (equation 53) °. 

Sometimes this equilibrium mixture of enolate and base won t work, usually because the base (hydroxide or alkoxide) reacts with the electrophile faster than the enolate does. In these cases, we need a base that reacts completely to convert the carbonyl compound to its enolate before adding the electrophile. Although sodium hydroxide and alkoxides are not sufficiently basic, powerful bases are available to convert a carbonyl compound completely to its enolate. The most effective and useful base for this purpose is lithium diisopropylamide (LDA), the lithium salt of diisopropylamine. LDA is made by using an alkyllithium reagent to deprotonate diisopropylamine. 

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