Reactions of n-butyllithium with haloferrocenes as routes to lithioferrocene

✍ Scribed by Frederick L. Hedberg; Harold Rosenberg

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1969
• Tongue: French
• Weight: 119 KB
• Volume: 10
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0040-4039
• DOI: 10.1016/s0040-4039(01)88600-7

✦ Synopsis

Lithioferrocene has proved to be a useful intermediate for the preparation of monosubstituted derivatives of ferrocene'. The only two routes to lithioferrocene previously reported are either the direct abstraction of a proton from ferrocene by an alkyllithium 2-5 (equation la) or an exchange reaction between chloromercuriferrocene and an alkyllithium 6-7 (equation lb). The former reaction leads to either a mixture of lithioferrocene and l,l'-dilithioferrocene 2-4 or a low yield of lithioferrocene5.

The latter is complicated by the concurrent formation of a toxic and reactive dialkylmercury compound which, in this laboratory, has led to the formation of both