Oxidative addition, zinc metal organic halide

Metallic zinc is typically covered with a zinc oxide layer that must be removed before the metal can engage in an oxidative addition reaction with organic halides. This activation can be done in one of several ways. 

Early preparations of active zinc utilized the potassium or sodium metal reduction of anhydrous zinc salts in refluxing THF or DME (Protocol l).3,8 These highly divided zinc powders displayed high reactivity towards organic halides in oxidative addition. Alkyl iodides and bromides reacted with the zinc powders at room temperature. Even aryl bromides and iodides would react to form the corresponding arylzinc iodides or bromides at refluxing... 

Monoorganozinc halides (RZnX) can be synthesized by oxidative addition of organic halides to zinc metal. The oxidative addition rate is strongly affected by the reaction conditions (solvent, concentration) [16] and by activation of the zinc [15,17]. Zinc powder or zinc foil, which is activated by treatment with 1,2-dibromoethane and then with trimethylsilyl chloride, will oxidatively add alkyl iodides [18]. The reaction of alkyl bromides, on the other hand, requires more active zinc, which may be prepared by the reduction of zinc chloride with either lithium naphthalenide [19] or lithium metal under ultrasonic.irradiation [20, 21]. 

The first report of the oxidative addition of zinc metal to organic halides dates back to the work of Frankland [1-4] around 1850. He discovered that dialkylz-inc compounds could be prepared from zinc metal and methyl iodide or ethyl iodide. However, the reaction did not proceed with alkyl bromides or chlorides. Also, no aryl halides were found to undergo the oxidative addition reaction. Several approaches have been reported since that time to increase the reactivity of the zinc metal. The majority of these modifications have employed zinc-copper couples [5-8] or zinc-silver couples. However, all of these procedures still only worked with alkyl iodides. Noller used a mixture of alkyl iodides and bromides but found that the mixture must contain a large percent of alkyl iodide [9]. 

Detailed Studies on the Mechanism of Organic Halide Oxidative Addition at a Zinc Metal Surface... 

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