Description

Organic reactions can oftentimes depend on all reagents and substrates entering the same phase to facilitate chemical transformations. There are still numerous exceptions; take this Grignard reagent formation with magnesium, for example. The glittery magnesium turnings (revolving around the flask in this video) react with a liquid bromide substrate in the solvent, tetrahydrofuran. This exothermic process produces enough heat to slowly evaporate the solvent, generating gas. In this instance, three phases exist in the reaction flask. Although this can be an unusual sight in the organic chemistry field, this robust reaction gives the desired organomagnesium reagent in quantitative yield, and will be used in the synthesis of a promising anti-cancer drug.

LINKS:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cq3WbiLJElhBXY7I5-OLeU2Bob8baR5ijVjFfw0/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Kydl0LZvEs