| Research Summary |
The early work of Nancy Phillips as well as that of Pat Green, Wes Whipple and Joe Borst had shown clearly that treatment of organo-iodine, -tin and -tellurium compounds gave detectable ate complexes, and that these were probable intermediates in the lithium-metalloid exchange reactions. Michelle tackled the problem of whether these ate complex had interesting reactivity in their own right. She prepared the first tellurium acetylide ate complexes, as well as lithium pentaarylstannate and lithium bisalkynyl triarylstannate ate complexes and examined the stereochemistry of their reactions with Mike Bowe's 2,5-diphenylcyclohexanone system, and with 2-phenylpropionaldehyde. In each case the identical products were formed with the lithium reagent or with the ate complex, suggesting that in each case the Curtin-Hammett principle applied and the chemistry was that of the lithium reagents in equilibrium with them, and not the ate complexes themselves.
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