Organometallic compounds are chemical compounds that contain at least one bond between a carbon atom of an organic group and a metal (which can be a main-group metal, transition metal, or metalloid such as boron, silicon, or arsenic).
Key Features:
- They always involve a metal–carbon bond.
- The organic part may be an alkyl, aryl, allyl, cyclopentadienyl, or other carbon-containing ligand.
- The metal can range from alkali metals (e.g., sodium, lithium) to transition metals (e.g., iron, nickel, platinum).
Examples:
- Grignard reagents: RMgX (where R = alkyl or aryl, X = halogen)
- Organolithium compounds: RLi
- Ferrocene: (C₅H₅)₂Fe (a “sandwich compound”)
- Tetraethyl lead: Pb(C₂H₅)₄ (historically used in gasoline additives)
Importance:
- Widely used in catalysis (e.g., Ziegler–Natta catalysts for polymerization, organopalladium compounds in cross-coupling reactions).
- Essential in organic synthesis (forming C–C bonds, nucleophilic addition to carbonyls).
- Useful in materials science (semiconductors, coatings, etc.).