Interest in alkyl zinc halides has existed for 150 years. Since Frankland's synthesis of EtZnI, 1 a multitude of applications have been found for such simple organometallic compounds in various fields of chemistry. For instance, alkylzinc iodides are used for Simmons−Smith cyclopropanation, 2 alkylzinc bromides are used for nickel-catalyzed Negishi reactions, 3 and EtZnCl generated in situ has been shown to be a good chain transfer agent in the ...
