Organometallic Compound

Name:
Organometallic Compound
Detailed information:
An organic compound composed of a metal attached directly to carbon (RM); such compounds have been prepared of practically all the metals, as well as with such nonmetals as silicon and phosphorus. Metallic salts (soaps) of organic acids are excluded. Examples are diethylzinc (the first known organometallic), Grignard compounds such as methyl magnesium iodide (CH₃MgI), and metallic alkyls such as butyllithium (C₄H₉Li), tetraethyllead, triethyl aluminum, tetrabutyl titanate, sodium methylate, copper phthalocyanine, and metallocenes. Some are highly toxic or flammable; others are coordination compounds. Reactive and moderately reactive organometallic compounds will react with all functional groups; two major types of reaction in which they are involved are oxidation and cleavage by acids. Probably the most important organometallic reactions are those involving addition to an unsaturated linkage. Many of them are powerful catalysts and form useful coordination complexes.See Catalysis; Metallocene; Coordination Compound.