Organometallic synthesis, or organometallic chemistry, represents a broad scope of use in synthetic organic chemistry. Organometallic synthesis refers to the process of creating organometallic compounds. Organometallic chemistry is among the most actively researched areas in organic, inorganic, biochemical, and catalytic chemistry. This arises from the use of organometallic reagents in the synthesis of a number of commercial compounds used in the pharmaceutical, polymer, and petrochemical industries.
What is Organometallic Synthesis?
Organometallic Compound Creation

Organometallic is a molecule that contains a metal atom bonded to a carbon atom. Compounds with, for example, metal-nitrogen, metal-oxygen, metal-phosphorus bonds are defined as coordination complexes but are often described as organometallic. Organometallic compounds may contain group 1 alkali, group 2 alkali earth, group 3-12 transition, and 13-15 main group elements, as well as metalloids, such as boron and silicon. The large array of elements that can form organometallic compounds result in vast research in procedures for organometallic synthesis. There are also research efforts in the use of organometallic reagents in the synthesis of ever-more complex and tailored organic compound, for which organometallic reagents drive specific bonding and/or catalyze reactions.
How are Organometallic Compounds Synthesized?
There are numerous other ways to synthesize organometallics:
- One of the most used methods to synthesize an organometallic compound is to react the pure metal with specific organic molecules. Examples of this type of synthesis are two of the most frequently used organometallic reagents, organolithium and organomagnesium, for which the metal is reacted with an alkyl- or aryl-halide to form the desired reagent.
- In double-decomposition reactions, metal halides exchange with alkylating reagents to yield the organometallic reagent. Carbon monoxide reacts with transition metals to form metal carbonyls.
- Decarbonylation of a metallo-organic will produce an organometallic compound.
- Hydrometalation is a synthesis method in which a molecule with a metal -hydrogen bond reacts with an organic molecule containing a double bond, forming a organometallic with a metal-carbon bond.
Various addition and elimination reactions form organometallic compounds from metallo-organic molecules. Choosing the optimal synthesis method is often informed by inline analytical techniques to ensure safe and efficient process development.
Organometallic Reagents Used in Chemical Synthesis
Organometallic reagents are frequently used to synthesize organic molecules since they drive specific bonding and/or catalyze reactions. Some of these reactions are difficult or impractical to carry out by other means. In most organic compounds, carbon atoms tend to be electrophilic, but in organometallic compounds, because the metal atom is typically less electronegative than the carbon it is attached to, the carbon acts as a nucleophile of varying strength. When a strongly electronegative metal is involved, the charge distribution is such that the compound is more ionic in nature and can be strongly reactive.
For example, in organolithium compounds the C-Li bond is more ionic and the C is more negatively polarized. The bonds in organolithium compounds are more strongly polarized than in their organomagnesium analogs (Grignard reagents), making organolithium a stronger nucleophile and more reactive compared to the Grignard. Both organomagnesium and organolithium reagents are strong bases for deprotonation and readily form C-C bonds, as well as drive many other organic reactions.
Organometallic compounds are widely used is catalytic chemistry. A classic example is the use of chlorotris (triphenylphosphine) rhodium to reduce alkenes and alkynes - without affecting other functional groups in a molecule. Another family of organometallic-based catalysts with Josiphos diphosphine ligands are used for enantioselective hydrogenation reactions. Hydrogenation and hydroformylation reactions are industrially important reactions that are catalyzed by various organorhodium or organocobalt compounds. Polymerization reactions are performed using catalysts, such as Ziegler-Natta compounds, which are two-part catalysts often containing Ti and Al that polymerize olefins.

Examples of Organometallic Compounds
The number of organometallic compounds is vast and cover most of the major elements in the periodic groups. Most examples of organometallics are either in the main group elements or the transition group elements. In the former group, bonding is more ionic or sigma bonded. The classic examples are organolithium or organomagnesium compounds, both of which are important in organic synthesis. Higher ionic bonding results in a more reactive compound. In the transition group elements, bonding is typically more covalent and complex as compared to the main group elements. Metal-alkyl, -alkene, and -alkyne and metal aryl groups such as benzene are often bonded with transition elements. Bonding in these compounds are strong with delocalized pi bonding contributions.
Examples of important organometallics include organolithium, organoborane (period 2 elements), organomagnesium, organosilicon (period 3 elements), organoiron, organocobalt (period 4 elements), organoruthenium, organotin (period 5 elements), organoplatinum, organoiridium (period 6 elements).
Organometallic Synthesis and Process Conditions
The Impact of Precise Temperature Control
Organometallic compounds are highly reactive and typically very fast reactions. Working with organometallic compounds, including lithium-aluminium hydride, lithium borohydride, diisobutylaluminium hydride, and Grignard reagents, requires tight temperature control at low temperatures. Consequently, reactions with organometallic compounds are often run at temperatures between 0° and -78°C to control the reaction and:
- Obtain the Right Product
- Assure Selectivity
- Avoid Side-Reactions, the Formation of By-Products, or Decomposition
- Ensure Reaction Control and Safety
Traditionally, synthesis that include such components are cooled using cooling baths with dry ice and an organic solvent, or possibly a large and bulky cryostat. The use of cooling mixtures is a challenge, since there is no flexibility in regards to temperature, and constant observation is required. The cooling liquids used are typically organic solvents, such as ethanol, acetone, cyclohexane, cyclohexanone or isopropanol. All of them pose a safety risk, since they are flammable. Organic solvents can also be expensive. Therefore, traditional cooling mixtures have limitations..
EasyMax chemical synthesis reactors, which offer calorimetric capability, are used in pharmaceutical and chemical development laboratories to optimize reaction variables, for faster scale-up, measuring reaction thermodynamics, and process safety. The automated laboratory reactor is optimal to support Design of Experiments studies and other methods that mathematically relate experimental parameters and performance.
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Monitoring Organometallic Chemistry and Synthesis
Understanding Reaction Mechanisms and Kinetics
FTIR spectroscopy is one of the fundamental analysis methods used to the investigate organometallic compounds. Charge distribution and dipole strength of metal – carbon bonding is one of main markers for reactivity and a key reason why organometallics have such usefulness in chemistry. Infrared spectroscopy is uniquely sensitive to changes in dipole moments, and thus gives great insight into bonding. Complex metal-ligand bonding in transition metal complexes is another area where FTIR excels at providing structural information. Infrared spectra give relative information about the length of bonds and strength of bonding. For example, infrared is frequently used to investigate carbonyl bonding with transition metals, since depending on the position of the carbonyl as well as if it is a bridging carbonyl, there are indicative peak frequency changes that directly relate to bond strength.
Raman spectroscopy is also used for investigation of organometallic synthesis and structure, as well as studying metallo-organo synthesis. In addition to fingerprint region spectral information, Raman spectroscopy is well-suited to measure lower frequency vibrations that are often observed in metal-containing organic compounds and in metal-metal bonding. Also, there is substantial interest in organometallic chemistry carried out in aqueous solution in advancing “green chemistry”. As an example, molybdocenes are useful for carbonyl reductions in aqueous solution. Raman is the ideal choice for studying molecular bonding in aqueous media.
EasySampler automated sampling implements a unique method of in situ capturing, quenching, and preparing each sample for offline measurements. This unattended and automated sampling technology enables taking a representative sample within air- & moisture-sensitive, heterogeneous, and highly-reactive organometallic chemistry. C-C and C-N coupling reactions in organometallic synthesis, such as Ullmann and Buchwald-Hartwig, reveal how organometallic reactions can be monitored using EasySampler in situ sampling.
In Situ Organometallic Synthesis
ReactIR and ReactRaman have all the aforementioned benefits of the basic techniques, along with additional advantages of real-time, in situ measurement. This enables investigating reactions as a function of time and under actual reaction conditions. Both techniques can be applied to batch or flow synthesis reaction.
As in classic organic chemistry, the ReactIR/ReactRaman technology provides detailed information about reaction kinetics, mechanisms, and insight into the presence and identity of transient intermediates. Since organometallic chemistry is often carried out under varied reaction conditions such as low or elevated temperature, elevated pressure and/or in the absence of oxygen and water vapor, the ability to measure chemistry without manually removing a sample for analysis is critical. Since many organometallic compounds are highly toxic, in situ analysis is important for ensuring lab safety.
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Use In Situ Spectroscopy to:
- Study organometallic synthesis under actual reaction conditions
- Track reactants and reagents as a function of time
- Measure reaction trends and progress
- Identify key intermediate species including transients
- Determine organometallic reaction kinetics and mechanism
- Determine structure of organometallic compounds, including intermediates
- Gain insight into metal-ligand bonding and ligand disassociation
- Develop thorough understanding of metallo-organic synthesis kinetics/mechanism
- Investigate organometallic reactions in all solvents including water
- Measure important lower frequency metal vibrations
- Measure reactions though glass reactor vessels
- Eliminate manual sampling and unnecessary exposure to toxic compounds
- Suitable for batch and flow syntheses

Tools to Optimize Organometallic Chemistry
An Integrated Approach
Individually, or as an integrated chemical workstation, these tools provide critical support for better organometallic synthesis reactions:
- FTIR Spectrometers and Raman Spectrometers
Real-time tracking and profiling of key reaction species as a function of reaction time to aid kinetics and mechanistic investigations - Automated, Inline Sampling (EasySampler)
Unattended, representative sampling of reactions when offline analysis is required - Chemical Synthesis Reactors (EasyMax and OptiMax)
Unattended, precise control, and data collection of reaction conditions - Reaction and Heat Flow Calorimeters (RC1mx and HFCal)
Measure complete heat of reaction to ensure safety by design

Less By-Products and Repetition
Precise Control At Low Temperature
The EasyMax LT (LowTemp) was specifically developed for applications that require reaction temperatures between RT and -80° C - without compromising on accuracy, precision, fast response or cooling performance to heat release during a reaction.
Experiments can be pre-programmed, run automatically and unattended. Data from online analytics or sampling tools are collected and can be integrated into the data, recipes, or annotations collected during the experiment and used for experiment evaluation and reporting.
Organometallic Chemistry and Synthesis in Recent Publications
- Paul Brunel, Chloé Lhardy, Sonia Mallet-Ladeira, Julien Monot, Blanca Martin-Vaca, Didier Bourissou, “Palladium pincer complexes featuring an unsymmetrical SCN indene-based ligand with a hemilabile pyridine sidearm” , Dalton Trans., 2019, 48, 9801-9806.
- Kori A. Andrea, Tyler R. Brown, Jennifer N. Murphy, Dakshita Jagota, Declan McKearney, Christopher M. Kozak, Francesca M. Kerton, “Characterization of Oxo-Bridged Iron Amino-bis(phenolate) Complexes Formed Intentionally or in Situ: Mechanistic Insight into Epoxide Deoxygenation during the Coupling of CO2 and Epoxides”, Inorganic Chemistry 2018, 57, 21, 13494-13504.
- Zackary R. Gregg, Justin R. Griffiths, Steven T. Diver, “Conformational Control of Initiation Rate in Hoveyda–Grubbs Precatalysts”, Organometallics, 2018, 37, 10, 1526-1533.
- Justin R. Griffiths, Elan J. Hofman, Jerome B. Keister, Steven T. Diver, “Kinetics and Mechanism of Isocyanide-Promoted Carbene Insertion into the Aryl Substituent of an N-Heterocyclic Carbene Ligand in Ruthenium-Based Metathesis Catalysts", Organometallics 2017, 36, 16, 3043-3052.
- Ross J.Beattie, Peter S. White, Joseph L. Templeton, “Formation of [(CO)(HCCH)Tp'W=NCH(CH3)CH(CH3)N=WTp'(HCCH)(CO)][I3]2 by oxidation of Tp'W(CO)(HCCH)(NCHCH3) and radical dimerization”, J. Organometallic Chem. 2017, 847, 54-58.
- Wen-Bo Liu, David P. Schuman, Yun-Fang Yang, Anton A. Toutov, Yong Liang, Hendrik F. T. Klare, Nasri Nesnas, Martin Oestreich, Donna G. Blackmond, Scott C. Virgil, Shibdas Banerjee, Richard N. Zare, Robert H. Grubbs, K. N. Houk, Brian M. Stoltz, “Potassium tert-Butoxide-Catalyzed Dehydrogenative C–H Silylation of Heteroaromatics: A Combined Experimental and Computational Mechanistic Study”, J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 2017, 139, 20, 6867-6879.
- Ben Cheng, Hong Yi, Chuan He, Chao Liu, Aiwen Lei, “Revealing the Ligand Effect on Copper(I) Disproportionation via Operando IR Spectra”, Organometallics 2015, 3, 41, 206-211.
- Alexander F. R. Kilpatrick, Jennifer C. Green, F. Geoffrey N. Cloke, “The Reductive Activation of CO2 Across a Ti═Ti Double Bond: Synthetic, Structural, and Mechanistic Studies”, Organometallics 2015, 34, 20, 4816-4829.
- Alexander F. R. Kilpatrick, Jennifer C. Green, F. Geoffrey N. Cloke, “ Bonding in Complexes of Bis(pentalene)dititanium, Ti2(C8H6)2”, Organometallics 2015, 34, 4830−4843.
- Ryan D. Bethel, Danielle J. Crouthers, Chung-Hung Hsieh, Jason A. Denny, Michael B. Hall, Marcetta Y. Darensbourg, “Regioselectivity in Ligand Substitution Reactions on Diiron Complexes Governed by Nucleophilic and Electrophilic Ligand Properties”, Inorg. Chem. 2015 5, 47, 3523-3535.
Formation of Heteroarylsilanes
Feature Article on Organometallic Synthesis
Wen-Bo Liu, David P. Schuman, Yun-Fang Yang, Anton A. Toutov, Yong Liang, Hendrik F. T. Klare, Nasri Nesnas, Martin Oestreich, Donna G. Blackmond, Scott C. Virgil, Shibdas Banerjee, Richard N. Zare, Robert H. Grubbs, K. N. Houk, and Brian M. Stoltz, “Potassium tert-Butoxide-Catalyzed Dehydrogenative C−H Silylation of Heteroaromatics: A Combined Experimental and Computational Mechanistic Study”, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2017, 139, 6867−6879.
In this in-depth study, the researchers investigated the mechanism by which potassium tert-butoxide catalyzes the dehydrogenative coupling of heteroarenes with hydrosilanes to form heteroarylsilanes, which in turn are intermediates that can be used build more complex molecules. As part of this effort, researchers used ReactIR FTIR Spectroscopy to investigate the possible presence of a coordinated silane species. In related research by other groups, it was shown that the reaction of (RO)3SiH with the corresponding KOR (R = alkyl or aryl) results in fivecoordinate hydridosilicate [HSi(OR)4]K. The researchers in this work postulated an analogous pentacoordinated intermediate for their reaction, but NMR studies were unsuccessful at providing confirmation. They report, however, evidence for this pentacoordinate species by monitoring the silylation reaction with ReactIR. The spectrum of this reaction revealed a new peak (2056 cm-1) adjacent to the Si-H stretching band in Et3SiH (2100 cm-1). They postulated this peak is consistent with the elongated Si−H bond, as expected in such pentacoordinate complexes. They also observed that the new peak correlated with silylation product formation and postulated that the formation of penta coordinate silicate is responsible for the observed induction period in the reaction.
Applications
Isocyanates are critical building blocks for high performance polyurethane-based polymers that make up coatings, foams, adhesives, elastomers, and insulation. Concerns over exposure to residual isocyanates led to new limits for residual isocyanates in new products. Traditional analytical methods for measuring the residual isocyanate (NCO) concentration using offline sampling and analysis raise concerns. In situ monitoring with process analytical technology addresses these challenges and enables manufacturers and formulators to ensure that product quality specifications, personnel safety, and environmental regulations are met.
Polymerization reaction measurement is crucial to produce material that meets requirements, including Immediate understanding, accurate and reproducible, Improved safety.
Impurity profiling aims at identification and subsequent quantification of specific components present at low levels, usually less than 1% and ideally lower than 0.1 %.
Chemical reaction kinetics, also known as reaction kinetics, reflect rates of chemical reactions. Learn how reaction kinetic studies provide enhanced insight into reaction mechanisms.
Continuous flow chemistry opens options with exothermic synthetic steps that are not possible in batch reactors, and new developments in flow reactor design provide alternatives for reactions that are mixing limited in batch reactors. This can often result in better product quality and higher yield. When coupled with Process Analytical Technology (PAT), flow chemistry allows for rapid analysis, optimization, and scale-up of a chemical reaction.
Grignard reactions are one of the most important reaction classes in organic chemistry. Grignard reactions are useful for forming carbon-carbon bonds. Grignard reactions form alcohols from ketones and aldehydes, as well as react with other chemicals to form a myriad of useful compounds. Grignard reactions are performed using a Grignard reagent, which is typically a alkyl-, aryl- or vinyl- organomagnesium halide compound. To ensure optimization and safety of Grignard reactions in research, development and production, in situ monitoring and understanding reaction heat flow is important.
Hydrogenation reactions are used in the manufacturing of both bulk and fine chemicals for reducing multiple bonds to single bonds. Catalysts are typically used to promote these reactions and reaction temperature, pressure, substrate loading, catalyst loading, and agitation rate all effect hydrogen gas uptake and overall reaction performance. Thorough understanding of this energetic reaction is important and PAT technology in support of HPLC analysis ensure safe, optimized and well-characterized chemistry.
Highly reactive chemistry is a terminology used to describe chemical reactions that are particularly challenging to handle and develop due to the potentially hazardous and/or energetic nature of the reactants, intermediates and products that are present during synthesis. These chemistries often involve highly exothermic reactions which require specialized equipment or extreme operating conditions (such as low temperature) to ensure adequate control. Ensuring safe operating conditions, minimizing human exposure, and gaining the maximum amount of information from each experiment are key factors in successfully designing and scaling-up highly reactive chemistries.
Many processes require reactions to be run under high pressure. Working under pressure is challenging and collecting samples for offline analysis is difficult and time consuming. A change in pressure could affect reaction rate, conversion and mechanism as well as other process parameters plus sensitivity to oxygen, water, and associated safety issues are common problems.
Hydroformylation, or oxo synthesis, catalytic processes that synthesize aldehydes from alkenes. The resultant aldehydes form the feedstock for many other useful organic compounds.
Halogenation occurs when one of more fluorine, chlorine, bromine, or iodine atoms replace one or more hydrogen atoms in an organic compound. Depending on the specific halogen, the nature of the substrate molecule and overall reaction conditions, halogenation reactions can be very energetic and follow different pathways. For this reason, understanding these reactions from a kinetics and thermodynamic perspective is critical to ensuring yield, quality and safety of the process.
Catalysts create an alternative path to increase the speed and outcome of a reaction, so a thorough understanding of the reaction kinetics is important. Not only does that provide information about the rate of the reaction, but also provides insight into the mechanism of the reaction. There are two types of catalytic reactions: heterogeneous and homogeneous. Heterogeneous is when the catalyst and reactant exist in two different phases. Homogeneous is when the catalyst and the reactant are in the same phase..
One of the four major classes of chemical reactions, synthesis reactions are represented by important examples in organic synthesis, catalyzed chemistry, polymerizations and inorganic/organometallic chemistry. In the simplest case, a synthesis reaction occurs when two molecules combine to form a third, more complex product molecule. Often, synthesis reactions are more complex and require a thorough understanding of the kinetics and mechanisms of the underlying chemistry, as well as carefully controlled reaction conditions.
Design of Experiments (DoE) requires experiments to be conducted under well-controlled and reproducible conditions in chemical process optimization. Chemical synthesis reactors are designed to perform DoE investigations ensuring high quality data.
Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy For Real-Time Monitoring Of Chemical Reactions
Reaction mechanisms describe the successive steps at the molecular level that take place in a chemical reaction. Reaction mechanisms cannot be proven, but rather postulated based on empirical experimentation and deduction. In situ FTIR spectroscopy provides information to support reaction mechanisms hypotheses.
Organometallic Synthesis, or Organometallic Chemistry, refers to the process of creating organometallic compounds, and is among the most researched areas in chemistry. Organometallic compounds are frequently used in fine chemical syntheses and to catalyze reactions. In situ Infrared and Raman spectroscopy are among the most powerful analytical methods for the study of organometallic compounds and syntheses.
Oligonucleotide synthesis is the chemical process by which nucleotides are specifically linked to form a product of desired sequenced.
Alkylation is the process by when an alkyl group is added to a substrate molecule. Alkylation is a widely used technique in organic chemistry.
This page outlines what epoxides are, how they are synthesized and technology to track reaction progression, including kinetics and key mechanisms.
The Suzuki and related cross-coupling reactions use transition metal catalysts, such as palladium complexes, to form C-C bonds between alkyl and aryl halides with various organic compounds. These catalyzed reactions are widely used methods to efficiently increase molecular complexity in pharmaceutical, polymer, and natural product syntheses. PAT technology is used to investigate cross-coupled reactions with regard to kinetics, mechanisms, thermodynamics, and the effect of reaction variables on performance and safety.
Lithiation and organolithium reactions are key in the development of complex pharmaceutical compounds; organolithium compounds also act as initiators in certain polymerization reactions.
C-H bond activation is a series of mechanistic processes by which stable carbon-hydrogen bonds in organic compounds are cleaved.
Organocatalysis is the use of specific organic molecules that can accelerate chemical reactions via catalytic activation.
Isocyanates are critical building blocks for high performance polyurethane-based polymers that make up coatings, foams, adhesives, elastomers, and insulation. Concerns over exposure to residual isocyanates led to new limits for residual isocyanates in new products. Traditional analytical methods for measuring the residual isocyanate (NCO) concentration using offline sampling and analysis raise concerns. In situ monitoring with process analytical technology addresses these challenges and enables manufacturers and formulators to ensure that product quality specifications, personnel safety, and environmental regulations are met.
Polymerization reaction measurement is crucial to produce material that meets requirements, including Immediate understanding, accurate and reproducible, Improved safety.
Impurity profiling aims at identification and subsequent quantification of specific components present at low levels, usually less than 1% and ideally lower than 0.1 %.
Chemical reaction kinetics, also known as reaction kinetics, reflect rates of chemical reactions. Learn how reaction kinetic studies provide enhanced insight into reaction mechanisms.
Continuous flow chemistry opens options with exothermic synthetic steps that are not possible in batch reactors, and new developments in flow reactor design provide alternatives for reactions that are mixing limited in batch reactors. This can often result in better product quality and higher yield. When coupled with Process Analytical Technology (PAT), flow chemistry allows for rapid analysis, optimization, and scale-up of a chemical reaction.
Grignard reactions are one of the most important reaction classes in organic chemistry. Grignard reactions are useful for forming carbon-carbon bonds. Grignard reactions form alcohols from ketones and aldehydes, as well as react with other chemicals to form a myriad of useful compounds. Grignard reactions are performed using a Grignard reagent, which is typically a alkyl-, aryl- or vinyl- organomagnesium halide compound. To ensure optimization and safety of Grignard reactions in research, development and production, in situ monitoring and understanding reaction heat flow is important.
Hydrogenation reactions are used in the manufacturing of both bulk and fine chemicals for reducing multiple bonds to single bonds. Catalysts are typically used to promote these reactions and reaction temperature, pressure, substrate loading, catalyst loading, and agitation rate all effect hydrogen gas uptake and overall reaction performance. Thorough understanding of this energetic reaction is important and PAT technology in support of HPLC analysis ensure safe, optimized and well-characterized chemistry.
Highly reactive chemistry is a terminology used to describe chemical reactions that are particularly challenging to handle and develop due to the potentially hazardous and/or energetic nature of the reactants, intermediates and products that are present during synthesis. These chemistries often involve highly exothermic reactions which require specialized equipment or extreme operating conditions (such as low temperature) to ensure adequate control. Ensuring safe operating conditions, minimizing human exposure, and gaining the maximum amount of information from each experiment are key factors in successfully designing and scaling-up highly reactive chemistries.
Many processes require reactions to be run under high pressure. Working under pressure is challenging and collecting samples for offline analysis is difficult and time consuming. A change in pressure could affect reaction rate, conversion and mechanism as well as other process parameters plus sensitivity to oxygen, water, and associated safety issues are common problems.
Hydroformylation, or oxo synthesis, catalytic processes that synthesize aldehydes from alkenes. The resultant aldehydes form the feedstock for many other useful organic compounds.
Halogenation occurs when one of more fluorine, chlorine, bromine, or iodine atoms replace one or more hydrogen atoms in an organic compound. Depending on the specific halogen, the nature of the substrate molecule and overall reaction conditions, halogenation reactions can be very energetic and follow different pathways. For this reason, understanding these reactions from a kinetics and thermodynamic perspective is critical to ensuring yield, quality and safety of the process.
Catalysts create an alternative path to increase the speed and outcome of a reaction, so a thorough understanding of the reaction kinetics is important. Not only does that provide information about the rate of the reaction, but also provides insight into the mechanism of the reaction. There are two types of catalytic reactions: heterogeneous and homogeneous. Heterogeneous is when the catalyst and reactant exist in two different phases. Homogeneous is when the catalyst and the reactant are in the same phase..
One of the four major classes of chemical reactions, synthesis reactions are represented by important examples in organic synthesis, catalyzed chemistry, polymerizations and inorganic/organometallic chemistry. In the simplest case, a synthesis reaction occurs when two molecules combine to form a third, more complex product molecule. Often, synthesis reactions are more complex and require a thorough understanding of the kinetics and mechanisms of the underlying chemistry, as well as carefully controlled reaction conditions.
Design of Experiments (DoE) requires experiments to be conducted under well-controlled and reproducible conditions in chemical process optimization. Chemical synthesis reactors are designed to perform DoE investigations ensuring high quality data.
Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy For Real-Time Monitoring Of Chemical Reactions
Reaction mechanisms describe the successive steps at the molecular level that take place in a chemical reaction. Reaction mechanisms cannot be proven, but rather postulated based on empirical experimentation and deduction. In situ FTIR spectroscopy provides information to support reaction mechanisms hypotheses.
Organometallic Synthesis, or Organometallic Chemistry, refers to the process of creating organometallic compounds, and is among the most researched areas in chemistry. Organometallic compounds are frequently used in fine chemical syntheses and to catalyze reactions. In situ Infrared and Raman spectroscopy are among the most powerful analytical methods for the study of organometallic compounds and syntheses.
Oligonucleotide synthesis is the chemical process by which nucleotides are specifically linked to form a product of desired sequenced.
Alkylation is the process by when an alkyl group is added to a substrate molecule. Alkylation is a widely used technique in organic chemistry.
This page outlines what epoxides are, how they are synthesized and technology to track reaction progression, including kinetics and key mechanisms.
The Suzuki and related cross-coupling reactions use transition metal catalysts, such as palladium complexes, to form C-C bonds between alkyl and aryl halides with various organic compounds. These catalyzed reactions are widely used methods to efficiently increase molecular complexity in pharmaceutical, polymer, and natural product syntheses. PAT technology is used to investigate cross-coupled reactions with regard to kinetics, mechanisms, thermodynamics, and the effect of reaction variables on performance and safety.
Lithiation and organolithium reactions are key in the development of complex pharmaceutical compounds; organolithium compounds also act as initiators in certain polymerization reactions.
C-H bond activation is a series of mechanistic processes by which stable carbon-hydrogen bonds in organic compounds are cleaved.
Organocatalysis is the use of specific organic molecules that can accelerate chemical reactions via catalytic activation.