Description

• General description: Zinc is an inexpensive, readily available versatile reagent in organic reactions and is commonly used as a reducing agent in organic synthesis. Zinc dust is used to reduce carbonyls, carbon-halide bonds, carbon-oxygen bonds, alkynes, and heteroatom bonds such as N-N and N-O bonds. It is also used to prepare various organozinc reagents. [1] Additionally, Zinc has been used in several well-known named reactions, like the Reformatsky reaction, the Knorr pyrrole synthesis, the Serini reaction, and the Simmons-Smith cyclopropanation.
• Application: Reducing agent; used for preparation of organozinc reagents, Reformatsky reagents, and the Simmons-Smith reagent (cyclopropanation).Zinc is also used as a: Reductant in the hydrothermal CO2 reduction to formic acid in batch reactors.Catalyst in the synthesis of propargylamines by one pot, three component coupling of aldehydes, amines and alkynes in acetonitrile.[2]