Diphenylzinc

Diphenylzinc is an organozinc compound. It is commonly used as the synthetic equivalent of a Ph&minus; synthon. Solvent-free diphenylzinc exists as dimeric PhZn(μ-Ph)2ZnPh molecules in the solid state.

Diphenylzinc is commercially available. It may be prepared by reaction of phenyllithium with zinc bromide:


 * 2 PhLi + ZnBr2 → Ph2Zn + 2 LiBr

It may also be prepared by the reaction of phenylmagnesium bromide with zinc chloride or diphenylmercury with zinc metal.