N-Butyllithium: Encyclopedia - N-Butyllithium

N-Butyllithium

The chemical compound n-butyllithium is the most prominent organolithium reagent. It has wide use as a polymer initiator in the production of thermoplastic elastomers (TPE) such as styrene. Also it is a strong base in organic synthesis. As it reacts violently with air and water, it is rarely used in pure form.

N-Butyllithium - History and market

Annual worldwide production and consumption of butyllithium and other organolithium compounds is estimated at 1800 metric tonnes.

N-Butyllithium - Chemical and physical properties

Due to the extreme pyrophoric character of butyllithium and its solutions it is not feasible to determine many chemical and physical properties, including melting point, boiling point, vapour pressure, water solubility, and pKa values. Any study procedure that does not exclude air and moisture would not produce meaningful data and is of no value.

N-Butyllithium - Safety precautions

Butyllithium is extremely reactive with air and moisture, and would not exist for any significate time in ambient air. Butyllithium solutions are pyrophoric and catch fire if open to the air. Decomposition products are generally butane gas and corrosive hydroxide salts. It must be stored and handled in sealed systems under inert gas to prevent loss of activity.

N-Butyllithium - External link

• Computational Chemistry Wiki

Categories: Articles whose titles are initialed a lowercase letter | Reagents for organic chemistry

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "N-Butyllithium", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki