Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 3, 2026

1,3,5-Triphenylbenzene and Corannulene as Electron Receptors for Lithium Solvated Electron Solutions
Published on: October 10, 2016
A computational study of lithium ketone enolate aggregation in the gas phase and in THF solution
Lawrence M Pratt1, Son C Nguyen, T Thanh Bui
1Department of Chemistry, University of Science, Vietnam National University, 227 Nguyen Van Cu, District 5, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. lpratt@fisk.edu
Abstract:
The aggregation state of several lithium enolates were calculated in the gas phase and in THF solution by the B3LYP DFT and MP2 methods. The gas phase free energies of aggregate formation were underestimated by the DFT calculations, compared to those obtained by the G3MP2 method, although DFT did correctly predict the hexamer to be the major gas phase species. The DFT calculations correctly predicted the tetramer to be the major species in THF, while MP2 underestimated the stability of the tetramer relative to the dimer.
Related Concept Videos
α-Alkylation of Ketones via Enolate Ions
Regioselective Formation of Enolates
Acid Halides to Ketones: Gilman Reagent
As shown below, the mechanism proceeds in two steps. First, one of the alkyl groups of the reagent acts as a nucleophile and attacks the acyl carbon of the acid chloride to form a tetrahedral intermediate. This is followed by the reformation of the carbon–oxygen double...
Reactivity of Enolate Ions
Factors Affecting α-Alkylation of Ketones: Choice of Base
The reaction involving bases like EtO− whose conjugate acid EtOH (pKa = 15.9) is stronger than the ketone (pKa = 19.2) results in an equilibrium mixture with higher ketone concentration. As a consequence, side reactions...
Acid Halides to Alcohols: Grignard Reaction
Grignard reagents are a source of carbanions and function as nucleophiles. The mechanism begins with the nucleophilic attack by the carbanion at the carbonyl carbon of the acid halide to form a tetrahedral intermediate. Next, the carbonyl group is re-formed, and the halide ion departs,...

