Wurtz reaction variants

A variant of the Wurtz reaction is the preparation of tetrabutyltin from activated magnesium chips, butyl chloride, and stannic chloride in a hydrocarbon mixture. Only a small amount of tetrahydrofuran is required for the reaction to proceed in high yield (86). 

In the case of an intramolecular Wurtz reaction less side-reactions are observed this variant is especially useful for the construction of strained carbon skeletons. For example bicyclobutane 5 has been prepared from l-bromo-3-chlorocyclobutane 4 in a yield of > 90% ... 

Severe limitations on the usefulness of the classical Wurtz reaction in the production of cross-coupled products have led to the development of many more generally useful variants. In particular, the use of copper catalysis and of stoichiometric organocuprate species have proved very valuable. The reactions of ir-allylnickel halides with sp halides is also represented by equation (1), and the uses of these reagents are treated separately. In order to provide a balanced view of the value of ir-allylnickel halides, some additional reactions with centers other than sp are described. 

This type of reaction is sometimes considered a variant of the Wurtz-Fittig reaction. 

Among a variety of new preparative methods for creating Ae Si-Si bond such as transition metal catalysed dehydrocoupling of hydrosilanes [12-14a], ring opening polymerization [11,12], polymerization of masked disilenes [14b], the most practice one is still the Wurtz type condensation of organomonochloro- or dichlorosilanes which requires a stoichiometric amount of an alkali metal and high reaction temperatures in the cases of Na and K [3-9, 12] (Equations 1 and 2). Lower temperature variants have yet recently been reported [14c]. 

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