 Despite or because of these difficulties, organocopper reagents are frequently generated and consumed in situ with no attempt to isolate them.They are used in organic synthesis as alkylating reagents because they exhibit greater functional group tolerance than corresponding Grignard and organolithium reagents.The electronegativity of copper is much higher than its next-door neighbor in the group 12 elements, zinc, suggesting diminished nucleophilicity for its carbon ligands.