Dialkylmercury compounds

Because mercury is easily reduced, dialkylmercury compounds are useful reagents for preparing a large number of alkyls of other metals by group transfer reactions. This is illustrated by the following equations ... 

Diaryl- or dialkylmercury compounds can be used for the synthesis of mixed aryltin chlorides326, or for alkylation of SnF2338 or SnX4339 (Scheme 26). Functional halostan-nanes can be prepared by a variety of methods. 

Some other organogermyl-, organohalogermyl- and organopolygermylmercury derivatives have been prepared by hydrogermolysis of dialkylmercury compounds (equations 37 and 38)43,44. 

Dressman [694] used the Coleman 50 system in his determination of dialkylmercury compounds in river waters. These compounds were separated in a glass column (1.86mx2mm) packed with 5% of DC-200 plus 3% of QF-1 on Gas Chrom Q (80-100 mesh) and temperature programmed from 70 to 180°C at 20°C min-1, with nitrogen as carrier gas (50mL min ). The mercury compound eluted from the column was burnt in a flame ionisation detector, and the resulting free mercury was detected by a Coleman mercury analyser MAS-50 connected to the exit of the flame ionisation instrument down to 0.1 mg of mercury could be detected. River water (1L) was extracted with pentane-ethyl ether (4 1) (2 ><60mL). The extract was dried over sodium sulphate, evaporated to 5mL and analysed as above. 

These propagation steps are repeated many times while the organic mercury compound is con-sinned and alcohol and elemental mercury are released. This process is interrupted only by termination steps (Figure 1.14). Thus, for example, two mercury-free radicals can combine to form one dimer, or a mercury-free and a mercury-containing radical can combine to form a dialkylmercury compound. 

The reaction of dialkylmercury compounds with magnesium is valuable for preparing dialkylmagnesium compounds, free from traces of halide, and either as solids or in a variety of solvents. 

Dialkylmercury compounds caimot be used for alkylating gold halides (as already noted by Frankland in 1864), while... 

The literature reveals a number of perhaps more convenient routes to aluminum alkyls. These include a simple oxidation-reduction reaction of aluminum metal with dialkylmercury compounds (Equation (2)). 

An advantage of carbon electrodes over mercury electrodes for the reduction of alkyl monohalides is that dialkylmercury compounds cannot form. In addition, as Lambert... 

A good yield of dialkylmercury compounds [69] may be obtained from alkyl halides and Na(Hg) too high an Na content in Na(Hg) lowers the yield of dialkylmercury due to increased formation of the Wurtz coupling product. The reaction may be fonnulated as follows ... 

Distannylmercury compounds (R3Sn)2Hg, R = Me, Et, Pr, Bul, Ph, and Me3SiCH2, can also be prepared by reducing dialkylmercury compounds with tin hydrides (Scheme 19-9).87,89... 

Several Hg FT n.m.r. studies of aqueous solutions of Hgl" and Hg " ", organo-mercury carboxylates and chlorides, and dialkylmercury compounds have appeared. Reviews have appeared on the polyatomic cations of zinc, cadmium,... 

Human activities have resulted in the release of a wide variety of both inorganic and organic forms of mercury. The electrical industry, chloro-alkali industry, and the burning of fossil fuels (coal, petroleum, etc.) release elemental mercury into the atmosphere. Metallic mercury has also been released directly to fresh water by chloro-alkali plants, and both phenylmer-cuiy and methylmercury compounds have been released into fresh and sea water -phenylmercury by the wood paper-pulp industry, particularly in Sweden, and methyl-mercury by chemical manufacturers in Japan. Important mercury compounds which also may be released into the environment include mercury(II) oxide, mercury(II) sulfide (cinnabar), mercury chlorides, mer-cury(II) bromide, mercury(II) iodine, mer-cury(II) cyanide, mercury(II) thiocyanate, mercury(II) acetate, mercury nitrates, mercury sulfates, mercury(II) amidochloride monoalkyl- and monoarylmercury(II) halides, borates and nitrates dialkylmercury compounds like dimethylmercury, alkoxyal-kylmercury compounds or diphenylmercury (Simon and Wiihl-Couturier 2002) (for quantities involved, see Section 17.4). 

The designation (5-hexenyl)2Hg refers to the mixture of dialkylmercurial compounds obtained from the reaction of 5-hexenylMgCl with HgCl2. The composition of the mixture is described in the Experimental Details. The results of reactions of Th + with (5-hexenyl)2Hg are given in Tables VII and VIII. Unlike the reactions with 5-hexenylMgCl, these reactions were ho-... 

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