22
votes
Accepted
Does a Grignard reagent react with enones to give the 1,2- or 1,4- product?
The correct answer is the 1,2-addition product (i.e. the allylic alcohol 1). In general, Grignard reagents and organolithium reagents add directly to the carbonyl carbon, while organocuprates (...
22
votes
Accepted
What is the role of ammonium chloride in the workup of a Grignard reaction?
Ammonium chloride ($\ce{NH4Cl}$) is the work-up reagent that quenches the magnesium alkoxide product of the Grignard addition. It is the reagent of choice as it is a proton source without being acidic;...
19
votes
Accepted
Ring contraction when cyclohexene oxide is treated with methyl Grignard
Sara Jane: Lest you miss the point of the stimulating discussion between Waylander and Zhe, I would like to sum up their thoughts with a diagram. Your first clue should have been the opening line: "...
15
votes
Accepted
Are there any significant uses of the compound formed by magnesium and anthracene?
It seems like an idea of using magnesium anthracene systems for the $\ce{MgH2}$ production persisted since 1980s [1] till late 2000s, when new more efficient method with better scalability for ...
13
votes
Does a Grignard reagent react with enones to give the 1,2- or 1,4- product?
The Grignard reaction, although very well examined, there are still arguments about the mechanism and the overall process. The reagent is usually best described via the Schlenk equilibrium, but that ...
13
votes
Why are the products of Grignard reaction on an alpha-chiral ketone diastereomers rather than a racemate?
First of all, welcome to ChemSE on your first post. Allow me to expand on the Comment of Karsten Theis and provide you with an illustration. If a compound is racemic and bears a single stereocenter, ...
12
votes
Accepted
Can Mg/ether reduce carbonyl groups?
It is known that $\ce{Mg}$ will reduce ketones. The articles (Ref.1 and 2) in the References section confirm this fact.
If you want to form the Grignard reagent of a molecule that also happens to ...
10
votes
Reaction of Grignard reagent with primary amines
Here's the thing about Grignard reagents. Though we typically want them to do nucleophilic addition to something, these powerful bases tend to go for protons -- a faster reaction -- if there is just ...
10
votes
Accepted
Why do Grignard reagents add to propargyl alcohols?
The addition of Grignards to propargyl alcohols occurs via the alkoxide salt, after deprotonation:[1]
Here:
the reactivity may be explained by the stabilising influence of complexation;
the ...
9
votes
Accepted
Getting 3,4-dimethylhex-3-ene from but-2-ene
Your approach, which uses $\ce{Br2}$ to convert 2-butene into 2,3-dibromobutane and react that with ethylmagnesium bromide $\ce{CH3CH2MgBr}$ has two flaws:
This approach removes the alkene and there ...
9
votes
Accepted
Rearrangement of Grignard reagent formed from exocycloproyl vinyl bromide
Grignard reagents are capable of rearranging, especially in this situation where there is significant strain. The specific vinyl bromide you drew here has been studied: J. Org. Chem., 1974, 39 (10), ...
9
votes
Accepted
Grignard reagent with sulfur dioxide
You get sulfinic acids $\ce{RSO2H}.$
This paper by Dowson et al. [1] states that Grignard plus $\ce{SO2}$ gives sulfinic acids and as a reference quotes an older article by Allen Jr. et al. [2] which ...
9
votes
Accepted
Why do Grignard reagents act as sources of nucleophilic R− and not Br−?
In all likelihood the halide ion does attack the substrate. But, the product such a reaction mode would form does not accumulate whereas the alkylated product does.
Recall that in a nucleophilic ...
8
votes
Synthesis of (1S,2S,4S)-4-ethenyl-5-methylcyclohexane-1,2-diol
Because the target structure contains the motif of a cyclohexane-1,2-diol, I suggest an approach including a Diels-Alder reaction (DA in the illustration below) of 1,3-butadiene and the commercially ...
8
votes
Can primary amine be produced using Grignard reagent?
Grignard reagents, in addition to being nucleophiles, are strong bases. Attempting to react a Grignard $\ce{RMgX}$ with nitrous acid is simply going to result in protonation of the Grignard to give $\...
7
votes
Does Grignard reagent react with oxygen?
This paper says it does and notes that while the yield of alcohols from aliphatic Grignards is 60-90%, formation of phenols is much less satisfactory. Other methods exist for the formation of phenols ...
7
votes
Accepted
Preparation of an aromatic Grignard reagent
I have prepared many aryl Grignards in my career. Generally the aryl bromide or iodide is easier than the chloride, but it can be done. THF is certainly fine for this, run under inert atmosphere, of ...
7
votes
Accepted
Conversion from t-butanol to alkene
t-butanol + allyltrimethylsilane + Lewis acid
This is called the Hosoni-Sakurai Reaction (see J. Org. Chem. 2006 71 8516)
Can only find an image for the more common addition to carbonyl compounds ...
7
votes
Accepted
Why are the products of Grignard reaction on an alpha-chiral ketone diastereomers rather than a racemate?
The reaction introduces a new chiral center into your mix, that chiral carbon being the one that has the tertiary alcohol on it (let’s call this #2).
The product will produce a mixture of those chiral ...
6
votes
Is HMgX also a Grignard Reagent like RMgX?
According to this reference $\ce{HMgX}$ compounds are a thing. You can't make them with magnesium +$\ce{HX}$, of course (what actually happens?), but you can get them from magnesium halide salts plus ...
6
votes
Accepted
Grignard alkene on a carbonyl
Nucleophilic acetyl substitution is common among carboxylic acid, acid chlorides, anhydrides, esters, and amides.
Two very common examples are anhydride decomposition and esterification of carboxylic ...
6
votes
Accepted
Will a Grignard reagent react with an epoxide or episulfide first?
There are quite a few reasons why the episulfide might open before the epoxide:
Sulphur is less electronegative than oxygen. Therefore, by Bent's rule , more atomic s-character will be directed by ...
6
votes
Accepted
Priority order of attack of grignard reagents on functional groups
For the compound given in the question, the priority order of Grignard reagent attack follows,
$\ce{R-OH > R-CO-R' > R-COOR'}$
Reason:
Acid-base neutralisation are very fast.
Carbonyl carbon ...
6
votes
Accepted
Grignard reaction with cycloheptatriene
The product A, shown below, is formed by first reducing the ketone to a secondary alcohol with $\ce{LiAlH_4}$ and then by adding a methyl group to form an ether using the reagent $\ce{CH_3I}$.
$\...
5
votes
Accepted
Phenol preparation from Grignard reagent
As requested by the OP - the route that lab chemists use to form phenols from aryl halides (not aryl fluorides) is via formation of the aryl boronic acid or boronate. These may be formed by either ...
5
votes
Accepted
Why is a Grignard reagent not protonated by chloramine?
The $\ce{N-H}$ protons are relatively weakly acidic and this makes deprotonation kinetically less favored if an alternative nucleophilic attack mechanism is available. With $\ce{NH3}$ no such ...
5
votes
What are the pros and cons of using Gilman reagent over Grignard reagent to synthesize a hydrocarbon?
I am not sure if Gilman reagents are harder to make than Grignard but they are softer nucleophiles and so they are used to perform 1,4-(conjugate) additions on $\ce\alpha,\beta-$unsaturated ...
5
votes
Accepted
Reaction of 1 equivalent of Mg in ether with 1,4-dibromobut-2-yne
Cyclobutyne cannot exist. There is no way to enforce 90° bends at both ends of a triple bond, but the carbanion formed by the Grignard reagent synthesis finds an easy way around this problem.
Let's ...
5
votes
Accepted
Addition of Methyl Grignard and use of HClO4 in this question
Consider the resonance structures of the pyranone. MeMgCl attacks the structure shown second. The perchloric acid workup hydrolyses the enol ether to give the diketone shown bottom right. NaOH ...
5
votes
Accepted
Why does magnesium bromide transfers from a carbon atom to nitrogen in piperidine?
There is no step 1 and step 2 in this reaction. Both are consecutive and second one is fast because it is an acid-base reaction:
Note that approximate $\mathrm{p}K_\mathrm{a}$ values of ring $\ce{C-H}...
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