Thread: Reaction of Diethylzinc to water

Can someone tell me what happen when diethylzinc is added to water? I have contrary sources telling me that zinc hydroxide is formed in one and also zinc oxide is formed in other

based on it's structural isomer it would form different things

however I would say both your sources are right, just in different quantities, all possible compounds would be formed from the reaction just nearly all of them would be in trace quantities

AN EXPLOSION! plus ethyl alcohol and zinc oxide

How can it form ethanol?

Isn't it:

Et2Zn + 2 H2O --> 2EtH + Zn(OH)2

?

As far as I know, the ethyl groups in Et2Zn have a carbanionic character, and therefore they are protonated rather than hydroxylated by water.

No, they form the corresponding alcohol, I have done this many times.

Metal alkoxides hydrolyse with water according to the following equation:

2 LnMOR + H2O → [LnM]2O + 2 ROH
where R is an organic substituent and L is an unspecified ligand (often an alkoxide) A well-studied case is the irreversible hydrolysis of titanium ethoxide:

1/n [Ti(OCH2CH3)4]n + 2 H2O → TiO2 + 4 HOCH2CH3

Originally Posted by fizzlooney

No, they form the corresponding alcohol, I have done this many times.

Metal alkoxides hydrolyse with water according to the following equation:

2 LnMOR + H2O → [LnM]2O + 2 ROH

Alkoxides will form alcohols, I agree with you.

But where's oxygen in diethyl zinc?

CH3CH2-Zn-CH2CH3

That's no alkoxide I'm afraid.
It will form ethane and some zinc oxide / hydroxide.

my mistake, didn't look closely enough.you are correct.
however the explosion part is correct.

True.
In fact, I used to underestimate this chap Et2Zn, but one day I squeezed into water a very tiny remainder of solution I had left in the syringe, thinking it would be too little to make any fuss, and I got a pretty violent and noisy reaction.

So when they say the reactivity of organometallic reagents decreases going K>Li>Mg>Zn etc... true but still most of them are quite rough fellows.