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Organolanthanide and group 3 organometallic complexes have uses as catalysts in organic synthesis. The ability to predict the chemoselectivity of the reaction prior to preparation of the starting material is of major concern. Substituion patterns will depend wholly on catalyst reactivity, and it has been demonstrated that reactivity relies on the steric environment of the alkene or alkyne. Using the catalysts Cp(sub2)YMe.THF and (CpTMS(sub2)YMe)(sub2), alkynes and alkenes exhibited increased reaction rate due to electronic effects.

Several synthetic methods for polyquinane natural products offer quick and efficient access to polyquinanes, but can lack generality. A general, regiospecific, tandem reaction method, resulting in highly substituted linearly-fused polyquinanes from dialkyl squarates and organometallic reagents, has been developed. It enables functionality to be strategically placed at most positions of the polyquinane skeleton. A variant of the method, leads to bicyclo(6.3.0)undecadienones.