Sodium tert-butoxide, 98% cAS 865-48-5 - used as a strong base and a non-nucleophilic base. In organic synthesis, it serves as an intermediate in various reactions like condensation, rearrangement and ring-opening.
It is similar in reactivity to the more common potassium tert-butoxide. The compound can be produced by treating tert-butyl alcohol with sodium hydride.
It is useful in dehydrohalogenation reactions. Potassium tert-butoxide catalyzes the reaction of hydrosilanes and heterocyclic compounds to give the silyl derivatives, with release of H2
tert-butoxide can be used to form the “less substituted” alkenes in elimination reactions (the E2, specifically). Most of the time, elimination reactions favor the “more substituted” alkene – that is, the Zaitsev product
