Alkaline earth metal complexes have been synthesized by RTLE, employing the same methodology used in synthesizing lanthanide complexes. The use of diphenylmercury in alkaline-earth metal reactions leads to the production of elemental mercury. The handling and disposal of elemental mercury is challenging due to its toxicity to humans and the environment. This led to the desire for an alternative RTLE reagent that would be less toxic and still very effective. Triphenylbismuth, BiPh, was discovered to be a suitable alternative. Mercury and bismuth have similar electronegativity values and behave similarly in RTLE reactions. BiPh has been used to synthesize alkaline-earth metal amides and alkaline-earth metal cyclopentadienides. The difference between HgPh and BiPh in these syntheses was that the reaction time was longer when using BiPh.