Organic Superbases: The Concept at a Glance

This Cluster is dedicated to the memory of Professor Manfred Schlosser

Abstract

The term ‘super base’ is generally applied to ionic metal-containing bases that undergo irreversible proton abstraction. However, non-ionic powerful amine derivatives of amidines, guanidines, phosphazenes, and Verkade’s bases with comparable or higher basicity to that of 1,8-bis(dimethylamino)naphthalene can all be arbitrarily classified as organic superbases. This Cluster contains manuscripts that present recent progress on organic superbases, including their applications in organic synthesis but, before proceeding, let us consider what class of molecule constitutes an organic superbase.

Key words

organic superbases - amidines - guanidines - phosphazenes - basicity

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