Potassium Triphenylmethide A Strong Base for Organic Synthesis

Abstract

Although a great many very strong bases have been used in organic synthesis¹, virtually all of them suffer from one or more disadvantages. Probably the greatest disadvantage to most of these bases is that those which are soluble in organic sollvnts (dimsyl ion, alkoxides) are also nucleophiles while those with nonnucleophilic anions such as the alkalai metal hydrides are insoluble in inert solvents.