Carbanions alkaline earth metal cations

The reaction involves the transfer of an electron from the alkali metal to naphthalene. The radical nature of the anion-radical has been established from electron spin resonance spectroscopy and the carbanion nature by their reaction with carbon dioxide to form the carboxylic acid derivative. The equilibrium in Eq. 5-65 depends on the electron affinity of the hydrocarbon and the donor properties of the solvent. Biphenyl is less useful than naphthalene since its equilibrium is far less toward the anion-radical than for naphthalene. Anthracene is also less useful even though it easily forms the anion-radical. The anthracene anion-radical is too stable to initiate polymerization. Polar solvents are needed to stabilize the anion-radical, primarily via solvation of the cation. Sodium naphthalene is formed quantitatively in tetrahy-drofuran (THF), but dilution with hydrocarbons results in precipitation of sodium and regeneration of naphthalene. For the less electropositive alkaline-earth metals, an even more polar solent than THF [e.g., hexamethylphosphoramide (HMPA)] is needed. 

A motif found in the majority of alkali metal stabilized carbanion crystal structures is a nearly planar four-membered ring (13) with two metal atoms (M ) and two anions (A ), i.e. dimer. This simple pattern is rarely observed unadorned as in (13), yet almost every alkali metal and alkaline earth carbanion aggregate can be built up from this basic unit The simplest possible embellishment to (13) is addition of two substituents (S) which produces a planar aggregate (14). Typically the substituents (S) in (14) are solvent molecules with heteroatoms that serve to donate a lone pair of electrons to the metal (M). Only slightly more complex than (14) is the four coordinate metal dimer (15). Often the substiments (S) in (15) are joined by a linear chain. The most common of these chains are tetramethylethylenediamine (TMEDA) or dimethoxyethane (DME) so that the spirocyclic structure (16) ensues. Alternatively the donors (S) in (16) have been observed as halide anions (X ) when the metal (M ) is a divalent cation, e.g. (17) or (18). Obviously, the chelate rings found in (16) are entropically favorable relative to monodentate donors (S) in (14), (15), (17) or (18) (Scheme 2). 

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