Issue 24, 2023

The quest for organo-alkali metal monomers: unscrambling the structure–reactivity relationship

Abstract

Organo-alkali metal reagents are essential tools in synthetic chemistry. Alkali metal organometallics aggregate in solution and solid-state forming clusters and polymers. The structure of these aggregates and their structure–reactivity relationship have been of great interest for many decades. This Perspective will look at the strategies that have been employed to isolate low aggregates and, in particular, monomeric complexes of the most common alkali metal alkyls (M = Li–Cs, R = methyl, trimethylsilylmethyl, bis/tris(trimethylsilylmethyl), butyls and benzyl) and the relationship between level of aggregation, structure and reactivity.

Graphical abstract: The quest for organo-alkali metal monomers: unscrambling the structure–reactivity relationship

Article information

Article type
Perspective
Submitted
30 mar 2023
Accepted
29 may 2023
First published
30 may 2023
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Dalton Trans., 2023,52, 8172-8192

The quest for organo-alkali metal monomers: unscrambling the structure–reactivity relationship

N. Davison and E. Lu, Dalton Trans., 2023, 52, 8172 DOI: 10.1039/D3DT00980G

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