Application
Zinc-copper couple has found widespread use in organic synthesis, especially in the Simmons–Smith cyclopropanation of alkenes. In this application, the couple (typically a slurry in an ethereal solvent) reacts with methylene iodide to generate iodomethylzinc iodide, which is the intermediate responsible for cyclopropanation.
The couple has also been employed to generate alkyl zinc reagents for conjugate addition, as a dehalogenating reagent, as a promoter of reductive coupling of carbonyl compounds, and to reduce electron-deficient alkenes and alkynes. Sonication has been employed to enhance the rate of the zinc-copper couple-mediated cycloaddition of α,α’-dibromo ketones to 1,3-dienes.
Read more about this topic: Zinc-copper Couple
Famous quotes containing the word application:
“I conceive that the leading characteristic of the nineteenth century has been the rapid growth of the scientific spirit, the consequent application of scientific methods of investigation to all the problems with which the human mind is occupied, and the correlative rejection of traditional beliefs which have proved their incompetence to bear such investigation.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“Great abilites are not requisite for an Historian; for in historical composition, all the greatest powers of the human mind are quiescent. He has facts ready to his hand; so there is no exercise of invention. Imagination is not required in any degree; only about as much as is used in the lowest kinds of poetry. Some penetration, accuracy, and colouring, will fit a man for the task, if he can give the application which is necessary.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“There are very few things impossible in themselves; and we do not want means to conquer difficulties so much as application and resolution in the use of means.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)