Travelling the organometallic road: a Wittig student's journey from lithium to magnesium and beyond

Both organomagnesium compounds (Grignard reagents) and organolithium compou nds are of utmost importance in synthesis. New developments in the area of difunctional organometallic compounds will be described against a historica l background in which the author's interest gradually drifted from organoli thium chemistry, in particular the deep red ortho-dilithiobenzene, to its m agnesium analogue, the tetrameric ortho-phenylenemagnesium. The latter was applied in the synthesis of novel 1,2-disubstituted benzene derivatives suc h as 9,10-dimetallatriptycenes.