Posts Tagged ‘metal alkyls’

Lithiation of heteroaromatic rings: analogy to electrophilic substitution?

Saturday, March 16th, 2013

Functionalisation of a (hetero)aromatic ring by selectively (directedly) removing protons using the metal lithium is a relative mechanistic newcomer, compared to the pantheon of knowledge on aromatic electrophilic substitution. Investigating the mechanism using quantum calculations poses some interesting challenges, ones I have not previously discussed on this blog.

(more…)