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Sunday, April 29, 2012

4/29/2012 - Synthesis of Lithium Alkyls

As I swerve back into the history of Organometallics I want to start back to 1917 in Germany.  A chemist named Wilhelm Schlenk, at the University of Munich, determined how to synthesize organolithium compounds through a Transalkylation process coupled with organomercury compounds.  He came up with two different methods of synthesis, one where there is nothing attached to the Lithium in the beginning and then the other method where there is an organic group that is transferred to the Mercury with a shorter alkyl group.  Both reactions are seen here below.
2Li + R2Hg → 2LiR + Hg
2EtLi + Me2Hg → 2MeLi + Et2Li
The synthesis of the dimethylmercury (Me2Hg) can be found here.


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