Reducing the species and its related precursors with sodium or potassium have given dimeric magnesium(I) compounds such as [{(Priso)Mg}] and other compounds with substituted versions of β-diketiminato. These compounds, with a general formula of [{(ArNacnac)Mg}]. However, as the size of the substituent on Nacnac decreased, the difficulty to isolate a magnesium(I) dimer increased. This can be shown by phenol, where only a Mg(II) dimer was gained, given by [(PhNacnac)Mg]. For a bulkier analogue such as [{(Nacnac)Mg}] a different synthesis route was carried out. Dibutyl magnesium and iodine were chosen since the free β -diketimine, tBuNacnacH has a different reactivity.This is due to tBuNacnacH not reacting with the Grignard reagent shown above. Instead, it can be heated with dibutylmagnesium and become deprotonated.
For the reactant, the  was stabilized by utilizing a bulkier, or more sterically demanding, N-ligand. This reaction is carried out through potassium reduction of the α-diimine, DAB and Mg(II) chloride in tetrahydrofuran (THF). It can be noted that DAB can be shown by the chemical formula as [(DipNCMe)]). The shown Mg(I) complexes are all thermally stable. Some can even tolerate temperatures up to 300 °C. They also range in colors from colorless to orange. As these compounds are investigated further, the dimers have been found to be kinetically stabilized by multiple β-diketiminate derivatives, a guanidinate, a diiminophosphinate, an enediamide, and several diimine-enolates.