The hydroboration of olefins with Et(2)BH provides diethyl(alkyl)boranes 2 which readily undergo a boron-zinc exchange with Et(2)Zn providing a range of polyfunctional primary, secondary, and benzylic diorganozincs. The resulting diorganozincs 3 have been reacted with various electrophiles (allylic halides, acid chlorides, alkylidenemalonates, ethyl propiolate, nitroolefins) in the presence of CuCN.2LiCl with excellent yields. With secondary dialkylzincs prepared from diastereomerically pure diethyl(alkyl)boranes, the boron-zinc exchange occurs with loss of stereochemistry. The asymmetric addition of 3 to aldehydes in the presence of the chiral catalyst 55 furnishes optically active polyfunctional secondary alcohols (50 to over 96% ee).

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Mg in catalytic amounts as the only metal permits the reductive coupling between benzyl halides and pinacolborane. HBpin acts both as an electrophile and as a reducing agent to regenerate an organomagnesium species in situ. An hydride oxidation mechanism is proposed on the basis of DFT calculations.