In Chemistry
The term methylation in organic chemistry refers to the alkylation process used to describe the delivery of a CH3 group. This is commonly performed using electrophilic methyl sources - iodomethane, dimethyl sulfate, dimethyl carbonate, or less commonly with the more powerful (and more dangerous) methylating reagents of methyl triflate or methyl fluorosulfonate (magic methyl), which all react via SN2 nucleophilic substitution. For example a carboxylate may be methylated on oxygen to give a methyl ester, an alkoxide salt RO− may be likewise methylated to give an ether, ROCH3, or a ketone enolate may be methylated on carbon to produce a new ketone.
On the other hand, the methylation may involve use of nucleophilic methyl compounds such as methyllithium (CH3Li) or Grignard reagents (CH3MgX). For example, CH3Li will methylate acetone, adding across the carbonyl (C=O) to give the lithium alkoxide of tert-butanol:
Read more about this topic: Methylation
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