What's Going on with These Lithium Reagents?

This Perspective describes a series of research projects that led the author from an interest in lithium reagents as synthetically valuable building blocks to studies aimed at understanding the science behind the empirical art developed by synthetic chemists trying to impose their will on these reactive species. Understanding lithium reagent behavior is not an easy task; since many are mixtures of aggregates, various solvates are present, and frequently new mixed aggregates are formed during their reactions with electrophiles. All of these species are typically in fast exchange at temperatures above -78 degrees C. Described are multinuclear NMR experiments at very low temperatures aimed at defining solution structures and dynamics and some kinetic studies, both using classic techniques as well as the rapid inject NMR (RINMR) technique, which can in favorable cases operate on multispecies solutions without the masking effect of the Curtin-Hammett principle.