Heavy alkaline-earth metal organometallic and metal organic chemistry: Synthetic methods and properties

Abstract

Despite the growing utility of heavy alkaline-earth metal organometallics, their high reactivity resulted in limited accessibility. Over the last decade, synthetic strategies have been developed to overcome challenges, resulting in unprecedented growth of this chemistry. The synthetic accessibility is going hand in hand with exciting and ever expanding utilities of the compounds in applications as diverse as catalysis or materials chemistry. This article provides a comprehensive overview of the various synthetic methodologies along with considerations on their structure-property relationships. Graphical Abstract: The careful examination and development of synthetic strategies towards organometallic and metal organic compounds of the heavy alkaline-earth metals have contributed much to the rapid growth of their chemistry. This article highlights the various synthetic methodologies towards the target compounds. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.