Alkali/coinage metals – organolithium, organocuprate chemistry

Part 1 of this chapter reviews coordination compounds of the alkali metals that contain a carbon-metal bond, looking firstly at the application of mixed alkali metal-zinc compounds in the directed metallation of a variety of compounds. The use of alkynyl, N-donor and N-heterocyclic carbene ligands is also discussed. Compounds of the coinage metals, copper, silver and gold, are discussed in Part 2 of the review. Discussion is broken down by metal, with copper being discussed first. Compounds containing, among others, alkene, amido and phosphido ligands are discussed, along with the significant amount of work on carbene complexes. This interest in carbene complexes is also noted within the silver and gold sections which follow, with a large number of new compounds being described. 2D and 3D networks containing silver centres have also attracted a great deal of interest and are described, along with the luminescent properties of a selection of novel gold species. This part of the review is completed by coverage of mixed-coinage metal structures, where many of the species are found to be polymeric in nature. Here again, the compounds discussed contain at least one carbon-metal bond.