Lithium
chloride is known to promote the direct insertion of metallic
zinc powder into organohalides in the practical synthesis of organozinc
reagents, but the reason for its special ability is poorly understood.
Pioneering a combined approach of single-metal-particle fluorescence
microscopy with 1H NMR spectroscopy, we herein show that
the effectiveness of different lithium salts toward solubilizing intermediates
on the surface of zinc metal establishes a previously unknown reactivity
correlation that predicts the propensity of that salt to promote macroscale
reagent synthesis and also predicts the solution structure of the
ultimate organozinc reagent. A salt-free pathway is also identified.
These observations of an organometallic surface intermediate, its
elementary-step reactivity, and the impact of various synthetic conditions
(salt, salt-free, temperature, stirring, and time) on its persistence,
are uniquely available from the sensitivity and spatial localization
ability of the microscopy technique. These studies unify previously
disparate observations under a single unified mechanistic framework.
This framework enables the rational prediction of salt effects on
multiple steps in organozinc reagent synthesis and reactivity. This
is an early example of single-particle microscopy characterization
of elementary steps providing predictive power in reaction development
by gaining a sensitive and selective spectral handle on an important
intermediate, highlighting the role of this next generation of analytical
tools in the development of synthetic chemistry.