Dimethylmagnesium
Encyclopedia
Dimethylmagnesium is an organomagnesium compound. Like other dialkylmagnesium compounds, it is prepared by adding at least one equivalent of dioxane to a solution of methylmagnesium halide
:
The dioxane complexes with magnesium dihalide and precipitates it as the solvate, driving the Schlenk equilibrium
to give the dialkylmagnesium compound.
The structure of this compound has been determined via powder XRD to contain magnesium atoms surrounded by bridging methyl groups in a tetrahedral arrangement.
Methylmagnesium chloride
Methylmagnesium chloride is a commercially available Grignard reagent. Like methyllithium, it is the synthetic equivalent to the methyl carbanion synthon. It is usually sold as a solution in tetrahydrofuran. The model of the molecule shows methylmagnesium chloride with the magnesium atom in the...
:
- 2 MeMgX + dioxane Me2Mg + MgX2(dioxane)
The dioxane complexes with magnesium dihalide and precipitates it as the solvate, driving the Schlenk equilibrium
Schlenk equilibrium
The Schlenk equilibrium is a chemical equilibrium named after its discoverer Wilhelm Schlenk taking place in solutions of Grignard reagents.The process described is an equilibrium between two equivalents of an alkyl or aryl magnesium halide on the left of the equation and on the right side, one...
to give the dialkylmagnesium compound.
The structure of this compound has been determined via powder XRD to contain magnesium atoms surrounded by bridging methyl groups in a tetrahedral arrangement.