ABSTRACT
When a metal is incorporated into a molecule with a metal-carbon bond, the resulting molecule is called an organometallic compound. In biology, metals are important at cofactors for the efficient activity of enzymes, and their ability to form multivalent compounds leads to the use of metals as chelating agents and their importance for the formation of coordination complexes. A carbon-boron bond and a carbon-mercury bond are important examples of a class of compounds known as organometallics. The alkali metals most used include lithium, and magnesium, and the product of this reaction contains a carbon-metal bond. Virtually any alkyl halide primary, secondary or tertiary, will react with lithium metal to form the corresponding organolithium reagent. Therefore, organolithium reagents should react as carbanion nucleophiles with aldehydes or ketones and such reactions will give the secondary or tertiary alcohols after reaction with al aldehyde or ketone respectively, following hydrolysis with aqueous acid.
