Halides organolithium compounds

Many organic halides do not react satisfactorily with lithium to form RLi ecMnpounds or with metallic magnesium to form Grignard reagents. The desired organolithium compound can often be prepared by a halogen-metal interconversion reaction ... 

Before we describe the applications of organometallic reagents to organic synthesis let us examine their preparation Organolithium compounds and other Group I organometal he compounds are prepared by the reaction of an alkyl halide with the appropriate metal... 

Organozmc reagents are not nearly as reactive toward aldehydes and ketones as Grig nard reagents and organolithium compounds but are intermediates m certain reactions of alkyl halides... 

Organolithium reagents (Section 14 3) Lithi um metal reacts with organic halides to pro duce organolithium compounds The organic halide may be alkyl alkenyl or aryl Iodides react most and fluorides least readily bro mides are used most often Suitable solvents include hexane diethyl ether and tetrahy drofuran... 

PALLADIUM-CATALYZED REACTION OF ORGANOLITHIUM COMPOUNDS AND ALKENYL HALIDES ... 

Organolithium compounds are sometimes prepared in hydrocarbon solvents such as pentane and hexane, but nonnally diethyl ether is used. It is especially important that the solvent be anhydrous. Even trace amounts of water or alcohols react with lithium to form insoluble lithium hydroxide or lithium alkoxides that coat the surface of the metal and prevent it from reacting with the alkyl halide. Furthennore, organolithium reagents are strong bases and react rapidly with even weak proton sources to fonn hydrocarbons. We shall discuss this property of organolithium reagents in Section 14.5. 

Organolithium compounds can readily be prepared from metallic Li and this is one of the major uses of the metal. Because of the great reactivity both of the reactants and the products, air and moisture must be rigorously excluded by use of an inert atmosphere. Lithium can be reacted directly with alkyl halides in light petroleum, cyclohexane, benzene or ether, the chlorides generally being preferred ... 

Allenyl and 1- and 2-alkynyl sulfoxides have also been prepared by reaction of organomagnesium halides with sulfinate ester 19. 1-Alkynyl p-tolyl sulfoxides were prepared in good yield from 1-alkynylmagnesium halides plus ester 19 in toluene (equation ll)63. The corresponding organolithium compound was unsatisfactory as a... 

The alkylation of tin tetrachloride with organolithium compounds, Grignard reagents, or organoaluminum compounds remains the most common route to tetraalkyltins, and thence, by the Kocheshkov disproportionation, to the various organotin halides. 

A variety of organometallic compoundshave been used to couple with alkyl halides. " Organosodium and organopotassium compounds are more reactive than Grignard reagents and couple even with less reactive halides. Organolithium... 

Next to the formation of Grignard reagents, the most important application of this reaction is the conversion of alkyl and aryl halides to organolithium compounds, but it has also been carried out with many other metals, (e.g., Na, Be, Zn, Hg, As, Sb, and Sn). With sodium, the Wurtz reaction (10-93) is an important side reaction. In some cases, where the reaction between a halide and a metal is too slow, an alloy of the metal with potassium or sodium can be used instead. The most important example is the preparation of tetraethyl lead from ethyl bromide and a Pb—Na alloy. 

Arylcopper intermediates can be generated from organolithium compounds, as in the preparation of cuprates.95 These compounds react with a second aryl halide to provide unsymmetrical biaryls in a reaction that is essentially a variant of the cuprate alkylation process discussed on p. 680. An alternative procedure involves generation of a mixed diarylcyanocuprate by sequential addition of two different aryllithium reagents to CuCN, which then undergo decomposition to biaryls on exposure to oxygen.96 The second addition must be carried out at very low temperature to prevent equilibration with the symmetrical diarylcyanocuprates. 

Organolithium compounds are often prepared by the reduction of organic halide with lithium metal. 

The order of reactivity of halides is RI > RBr > RC1 (Alkyl and aryl fluorides are seldom used in the preparation of organolithium compounds). 

Grignard reagents and organolithium compounds abstract protons that are much less acidic than those of water and alcohols => a useful way to prepare alkynylmagnesium halides and alkynyllithium. 

The nucleophilic displacement reactions of organolithium compounds with alkyl halides are second order insofar as the rates have been measured, but there are unexplained examples of autocatalysis and non-reproducable rate constants. The product of the reaction in the case of the methylallyl chlorides is the same mixture regardless of... 

Ge—metal bonds can be built in analogy as described for Ge—C bonds by the reaction of organolithium compounds with metal halides. With trans-dichlorobis(triethylphosphine)platinum(II), new germyl transition metal complexes were synthesized (equation 36)41. 

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