[jato1]

I am planning on using a plastic syringe to withdraw a volume of t-butyl lithium from a bottle (having already inserted the N2 line into the bottle via another needle) but how can I keep the t-butyl lithium from combusting when I withdraw the needle from the bottle.  The residue will block the needle.  Obviously I need to keep the end of the needle under an inert atmosphere but how can I do this to allow me to subsequently add the base to my reaction vessel.

Thanks in advance

[g-bones]

I personally have not used t- butyl lithium but i have used n and sec butyl and its no big deal as long as as soon as you remove the needle from the bottle of the reagent put it straight into your reaction vessel (which should be under inert atmosphere too of course).  once you have it in the reaction vessel it wont block the needle and you can add it dropwise as normal.  hope this helps

[macman104]

Use a dropping funnel.

This is how we used to handle it:

1)  Insert inert gas line into t-butyl lithium
2)  Insert a cannula with one end into a dropping funnel (with a septum put on it), and then the other end into the bottle
3)  Fill the dropping funnel to the required volume and then remove the cannula.
4)  Then you can dropwise add the t-butyl lithium from the dropping funnel which is also under inert atmosphere.