Organic halides lithium metal

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 ... 

Lithium Iodide. Lithium iodide [10377-51 -2/, Lil, is the most difficult lithium halide to prepare and has few appHcations. Aqueous solutions of the salt can be prepared by carehil neutralization of hydroiodic acid with lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide. Concentration of the aqueous solution leads successively to the trihydrate [7790-22-9] dihydrate [17023-25-5] and monohydrate [17023-24 ] which melt congmendy at 75, 79, and 130°C, respectively. The anhydrous salt can be obtained by carehil removal of water under vacuum, but because of the strong tendency to oxidize and eliminate iodine which occurs on heating the salt ia air, it is often prepared from reactions of lithium metal or lithium hydride with iodine ia organic solvents. The salt is extremely soluble ia water (62.6 wt % at 25°C) (59) and the solutions have extremely low vapor pressures (60). Lithium iodide is used as an electrolyte ia selected lithium battery appHcations, where it is formed in situ from reaction of lithium metal with iodine. It can also be a component of low melting molten salts and as a catalyst ia aldol condensations. 

Organolithium reagents (Section 14.3) Lithium metal reacts with organic halides to produce organolithium compounds. The organic halide may be alkyl, alkenyl, or aryl. Iodides react most and fluorides least readily bromides are used most often. Suitable solvents include hexane, diethyl ether, and tetrahy-drofuran. 

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

The Bouveault reaction is the preparation of an aldehyde by a one pot reaction between an organic halide and lithium metal in dimethylformamide. Ultrasound has been found to markedly enhance this reaction when it is performed in tetrahydrofuran [93]. Use of an ultrasonic bath at 10-20 °C affords short reaction times of between 5 and 15 min and generates yields in the range 70-88%. Using this methodology the conversion of 1-bromobutane to pentanal (88%) can be achieved in only 5 minutes. This must be contrasted with the yield of less than 10 % which is obtained under the normal stirred conditions in the same time period. This result confirms that the effect of irradiation goes beyond mere agitation (Eq. 3.11). 

Several organolithium compounds have important apphcations in organic syntheses. These may be readily synthesized by reactions of lithium with organics. The metal reacts with alkyl or aryl halides or mercury alkyls or aryls to produce alkyl or aryl hthium. Some examples are ... 

The reaction of heterocyclic lithium derivatives with organic halides to form a C-C bond has been discussed in Section 3.3.3.8.2. This cannot, however, be extended to aryl, alkenyl or heteroaryl halides in which the halogen is attached to an sp2 carbon. Such cross-coupling can be successfully achieved by nickel or palladium-catalyzed reaction of the unsaturated organohalide with a suitable heterocyclic metal derivative. The metal is usually zinc, magnesium, boron or tin occasionally lithium, mercury, copper, and silicon derivatives of thiophene have also found application in such reactions. In addition to this type, the Pd-catalyzed reaction of halogenated heterocycles with suitable alkenes and alkynes, usually referred to as the Heck reaction, is also discussed in this section. 

Reactions of metal organic compounds with alkyl halides, such as alkyl-lithium-alkylhalide reactions 2 .c,d,f,h,ii8 -d io) and reactions of Grignard compounds and sodium-naphthalenide D with alkylhalides,... 

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