Cyclomagnesation of terminal and cyclic olefins and 1,2-dienes with RMgHlg and R 2 Mg in the presence of dichloro(dicyclopentadienyl)titanium(IV) gives non-Grignard cyclic and acyclic organomagnesium compounds. The reaction direction depends on the structure of unsaturated initial compound. The most probable reaction mechanism is discussed.In 1989, we reported [1] on the cyclomagnesation of olefins with RMgR' (R' = Alk, Hlg) in the presence of Cp 2 ZrCl 2 as catalyst, which afforded 1,4-dimagnesium compounds and/or magnesacyclopentanes. These studies were subsequently developed in [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. According to the data of [3,6,8], depending on the conditions, the cyclomagnesation process can be accompanied by carbomagnesation [10][11][12][13][14] which involves formation of zirconacyclopentane intermediates. The yields and ratio of cyclo-and carbomagnesation products depends on the solvent nature, temperature, and initial reactant ratio [3,8]. As a rule, the reaction is catalyzed by zirconium complexes [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. We have found no published data on the use of coordination compounds derived from other transition metals to catalyze cyclomagnesation.With the goal of extending the scope of application of catalytic cyclomagnesation of unsaturated compounds with organomagnesium reagents and searching for new catalysts capable of promoting such reactions, we examined reactions of ethylmagnesium bromide and diethylmagnesium (EtMgR; R = Br, Et) with olefins (1-octene, allylbenzene, styrene, and endo-dicyclopentadiene) in the presence of catalytic systems on the basis of Ti, Hf, Fe, Co, Ni, Pd, and Rh, i.e., transition metals whose coordination compounds are widely used to catalyze various transformations of olefins, dienes, and acetylenes. Preliminary experiments showed that the maximal yields of the cyclomagnesation products are attained in the presence of titanium complexes, in particular Cp 2 TiCl 2 . Therefore, all subsequent experiments on cyclomagnesation of the above listed olefins were performed with the use of Cp 2 TiCl 2 as catalyst.Depending on the substrate nature, the reactions with EtMgBr and Et 2 Mg in the presence of Cp 2 TiCl 2 gave cyclo-, carbo-, and hydromagnesation products. Styrene reacted with EtMgBr in the presence of Cp 2 TiCl 2 (20°C, 20 h, THF, PhCH=CH 2 -EtMgBr-[Ti] ratio 1 : 2 : 0.05) to afford a mixture of mono-and diphenyl-substituted magnesacyclopentanes and/or (in keeping with the Schlenk equilibrium) 1,4-dimagnesium derivatives I-III [3,8]. Deuterolysis of the latter led to formation of 1,4-dideuterobutanes IV-VI at a ratio of ~3 : 2 : 1 in an overall yield of ~75% (Scheme 1). In each experiment, unidentifiable highmolecular compounds were formed (~15%) in addition to the above products. When the reaction of styrene was performed with Et 2 Mg instead of EtMgBr, other conditions being equal, the products were magnesacyclopentanes and/or 1,4-dimagnesium derivatives I-III (ratio ~5 : 1 : 2) in an overall yield of ~60%; in this case, no high-molec...