Properties of organocopper compounds

 Organocopper compounds are very reactive towards oxygen and water forming copper
oxide and tend to be thermally unstable.
 Most cuprates are salts many are generally insoluble in nonpolar solvents.
 They are very frequently used in organic chemistry as alkylating reagents because they
exhibit more functional group tolerance than corresponding Grignard and organolithium
reagents.
 The electronegativity of copper is much higher than its next-door neighbour in the group
12 elements, zinc, suggesting less nucleophilicity for its carbon ligands.
 The oxidation state can be +1 or +2 and intermediates can have oxidation state +3.
Monovalent alkylcopper compounds (RCu) are polymeric but form cuprates (R2CuLi)
upon treatment with organolithium compounds (RLi). These cuprates are sometimes
referred to as Gilman reagents
 The cuprates complex form complicated aggregates both in crystalline form and in
solution. Lithium dimethylcuprate is a dimer in diethyl ether forming an 8-membered
ring with two lithium atoms coordinating between two methyl groups
.