In such cases the organozinc compound is usually prepared by transmetallation from an organolithium or a Grignard reagent, for example:Zinc enolates, prepared from alkali metal enolates and ZnCl2, provide control of stereochemistry in aldol condensation reactions due to chelation on to the zinc.
Sama klorovodikova kislina slabo eagira s primarnimi in sekundarnimi alkoholi, toda kombinacija HCl z ZnCl2 (poznana kot "Lucas reagent") je učinkovita za pripravo alkilnih kloridov.