General Introduction

This first chapter is a general introduction to the book in which we give a background on the Ca-Cσ-bond containing organocalcium compounds, which are less studied as compared to other organometallic compounds. We describe the interest in synthesizing the synthesized organometallic intermediates and products as well as their application fields such as chemistry, biology, medicine, pharmacology, and industry. It is indicated that such compounds are not well-known because of the low reactivity of calcium elements, the low solubility of oraganocalcium intermediates and products in common organic solvents, their instability resulting from their high reactivity, cause their degradation and the degradation of their preferred ethereal solvents. Despite the significant difference in electronegativity value between the two elements, the Ca-Cσ-bonds have a covalent polar character. In many cases, the coordination considerably decreases the calcium electropositive character, facilitating the formation of the Ca-Cσ-covalent bond. The difficulties in synthesizing such compounds, their degradation property and catalytic behaviour as well as the spectroscopy technics used to identify their structures are also described.

Keywords: Alkylcalcium, Alkaline earth metals, Ca-Cσ bond, Calcium, Calcium coordination, Catalytic properties, Calcium reactivity, Covalent bond, d- orbitals, Degradation, Ethereal solvents, Electronegativity, Intermediates, Ionic bond, Organometallic, Organocalcium, Phenylcalcium, Solvent degradation, Spectroscopic technics.