Magnesium metal alkenes

Some interesting silyl-cyclization reactions occur when reactive alkenes or alkenyl halides react with halosilanes and magnesium metal. 

Magnesium metal adds to the activated monoenes, styrene, and 1,1-diphenylethene in liquid ammonia or HMPT with C—C bond formation . In general, however, there is no reaction with simple alkenes. 

Uses. Magnesium alkyls are used as polymerization catalysts for alpha-alkenes and dienes, such as the polymerization of ethylene (qv), and in combination with aluminum alkyls and the transition-metal haUdes (16—18). Magnesium alkyls have been used in conjunction with other compounds in the polymerization of alkene oxides, alkene sulfides, acrylonitrile (qv), and polar vinyl monomers (19—22). Magnesium alkyls can be used as a Hquid detergents (23). Also, magnesium alkyls have been used as fuel additives and for the suppression of soot in combustion of residual furnace oil (24). 

Another hydride, magnesium hydride prepared in situ from lithium aluminum hydride and diethylmagnesium, reduced terminal alkynes to 1-alkenes in 78-98% yields in the presence of cuprous iodide or cuprous r rt-butoxide, and 2-hexyne to pure cij-2-hexene in 80-81% yields [///]. Reduction of alkynes by lithium aluminum hydride in the presence of transition metals gave alkenes with small amounts of alkanes. Internal acetylenes were reduced predominantly but not exclusively to cis alkenes [377,378]. 

Nnmerons other protocols have been developed to prepare magnesium enolates by asymmetric 1,4-addition of Grignard reagents to electron-deficient alkenes. Recently, an enantioselective metal-catalyzed version of this key reaction has been studied with enones and a, S-unsaturated thioesters Using chiral ferrocenyl-based diphosphines leads to... 

Magnesium in methanol, another dissolving-metal system, is known to be only active in the reduction of activated multiple bonds. The reactivity, however, can be dramatically enhanced by the addition of catalytic amount of palladium, thus allowing rapid and facile reduction of nonactivated acyclic and cyclic alkenes.194... 

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. 

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