Lithium amides calculational studies

The importance of open dimers in organic reactions has received widespread attention in recent years (Fig. 1). Determination of the crystal structural of an open dimer of lithium amide also led to the proposal that the coordinatively unsaturated open dimer is a critical intermediate [26]. Collum and co-workers used MNDO calculations in which extensive studies of monomer- (M-1) and open-dimer (OD-l)-based pathways afforded insight into mechanisms [27]. 

Alanates and amides have also been studied. First-principle calculations suggest calcium alanate has many potentially attractive combinations, but calcium alanate itself is likely to be too unstable (Alapati et al., 2007a). There is also a lot of interest in lithium hydride with lithium amide (Chen et al, 2002) and with magnesium amide (Leng et al., 2004), but these are discussed in detail in Chapter 15. 

---