Formation of organometallic reagents

Many organometallic reagents are commercially available, however, it is often necessary to make then. The following equations illustrate these reactions for the commonly used metals lithium and magnesium (R may be hydrogen or alkyl groups in any combination).

• An alkyllithium reagent

R₃C−X+2Li→R₃C−Li+LiX

• A Grignard reagent

R₃C−X+Mg→R₃C−MgX

Halide reactivity in these reactions increases in the order: Cl < Br < I and fluorides are usually not used. The alkyl magnesium halides described in the second reaction are called Grignard reagents after the French chemist, Victor Grignard, who discovered them and received the Nobel prize in 1912 for this work. The other metals mentioned above react in a similar manner, but Grignard and Alkyllithium reagents are the most widely used. Although the formulae drawn here for the alkyllithium and Grignard reagents reflect the stoichiometry of the reactions and are widely used in the chemical literature, they do not accurately depict the structural nature of these remarkable substances. Mixtures of polymeric and other associated and complexed species are in equilibrium under the conditions normally used for their preparation.

A suitable solvent must be used. For alkyllithium formation pentane or hexane is usually used. Diethyl ether can also be used but the subsequent alkyllithium reagent must be used immediately after preparation due to an interaction with the solvent. Ethyl ether or THF are essential for Grignard reagent formation. Lone pair electrons from two ether molecules form a complex with the magnesium in the Grignard reagent (As pictured below). This complex helps stabilize the organometallic and increases its ability to react.

These reactions are obviously substitution reactions, but they cannot be classified as nucleophilic substitutions, as were the earlier reactions of alkyl halides. Because the functional carbon atom has been reduced, the polarity of the resulting functional group is inverted (an originally electrophilic carbon becomes nucleophilic). This change, shown below, makes alkyl lithium and Grignard reagents excellent nucleophiles and useful reactants in synthesis.

Examples