Why are Grignard reagents prepared in ether?
1 Answer
Because ethers are aprotic, dipolar solvents in which Grignard reagents have some solubility.
Explanation:
As highly polar organometallic species, Grignard reagents have some carbanionic character: they could be represented as
Given this representation, it is clear that they will react swiftly and irreversibly with any protic solvent or water, or even any insufficiently dry non-protic solvent:
I used
As you know, however, Grignards are the
What structural information that exists suggests that Grignards are oligomeric species, that are solvated by several solvent molecules, which allows the Grignard to get into ethereal solution.