Friday, October 9, 2009

What is the use of Mg/ether?

What you are talking about is a Grignard reaction.  This is a chemical reaction where an alkylmagnesium halide is reacted with an electrophile like a carbonyl group.  The alkylmagnesium halide reagent is often called the Grignard reagent.  It is an organometallic species that is composed of a hydrocarbon (alkyl group) and a charged magnesium species.  Ethylmagnesium bromide (EtMgBr) is a common example.  The magnesium bromide is basically a cation and the ethyl group is basically a carbanion which can act as a nucleophile in a chemical reaction.  Mg/ether is a common way in organic chemistry to denote solid magnesium metal in ether.  This is a classic way to prepare a Grignard reagent.  An alkyl halide like ethyl bromide (EtBr) is dissolved in diethyl ether as a solvent.  Solid magnesium is added to convert the ethyl bromide to ethylmagnesium bromide.  In writing a chemical reaction, the phrase "Mg/ether" is often written above the reaction arrow to denote this reaction.

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