Magnesium—carbon bonds elemental halogens

After the physical contact between the reaction partners is established, the metallic surface can react. Conventionally, the rate of this reaction, for magnesium, is proportional to the active surface area, 7 a conclusion which reasonably should apply to other metals. The process leading from an alkyl halide to the organometallic involves a series of elemental steps,the first one being a single electron transfer (SET) from the metal to the carbon-halogen bond. 

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