Organolithium reagents Lewis acid promotion

The reactions of organometallic reagents such as organolithium [696], -zinc [697-700], -magnesium [701], and -aluminum species [702] are facilitated by the presence of TiCU [9] as exemplified in Eq. (308) [703]. Even addition of a titanium compound to aldehydes was promoted in the presence of an extra amount of a titanium salt (Eq. 309) [704,705]. Titanium Lewis acids increase the reactivity of the a-position of a ketone (Eq. 310) [706] and the /3-position of an a,/3-unsaturated carbonyl compound towards nucleophiles (Eq. 311) [608,707-709]. The positive role of TiCU in the photo-hydroxymethylation of ketones and aldimines is ascribed to activation of methanol by the titanium salt (Eq. 312) [710]. 

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