Dibutylmagnesium is an organometallic chemical compound of magnesium. Its chemical formula is . Dibutylmagnesium is a chemical compound from the group of organomagnesium compounds. The pure substance is a waxy solid. Commercially, it is marketed as a solution in heptane.
Synthesis Dibutylmagnesium can be obtained by the reaction of butyllithium with butylmagnesium chloride and the subsequent addition of magnesium 2-ethylhexanoate. The compound can also be prepared by hydrogenation of magnesium, followed by a reaction with 1-butene. It is also possible to prepare dibutylmagnesium using 2-chlorobutane, magnesium powder, and n-butyllithium.
Use Dibutylmagnesium is used as a convenient reagent for the preparation of organomagnesium compounds.
References Terry L. Rathman: "Dibutylmagnesium". In: Encyclopedia of Reagents for Organic Synthesis, 2001, doi:10.1002/047084289X.rd063 Alan W. Duff, Peter B. Hitchcock, et al: "'Dibutylmagnesium', a convenient reagent for the synthesis of useful organic magnesium reagents MgA2 including cyclopentadienyls, aryloxides, and amides. Preparation of Zr(C5H5)Cl3. X-ray structure of [{μ-N(SiMe)3C6H4N}(SiMe3)-o(OEt2)]2." In: Journal of Organometallic Chemistry. Issue 293 (1985), p. 271, . "Method for preparing dibutylmagnesium" (Patent CN101362772A), retrieved via Google Patents 28 October 2018.
Michael J. Michalczyk: "Synthesis of magnesium hydride by the reaction of phenylsilane and dibutylmagnesium." In: Organometallics. Issue 11 (1992), p. 2307, .