Alkaline-Earth Metal Chemistry
More than 100 years after Victor Grignard, the organometallic chemistry of the heavier alkaline-earth metals (Ca, Sr and Ba) was partly still in a very primitive state. Although Cp-chemistry was well-developed, only few well-stabilized, and therefore relatively unreactive, metal-alkyl complexes were known.
We developed synthetic routes for the benzyl series via highly reactive organo-potassium precursors or via „superbase methodology“.
The heavy alkaline-earth metal compounds find application in catalysis and polymerization chemistry.