baseassisted
Baseassisted is a term used in chemistry to describe reactions in which a base plays an active role in the rate- or pathway-determining steps of a transformation, rather than acting only to maintain basic conditions or generate reactive species indirectly. In such processes the base can participate as a deprotonating agent, a stabilizer of charged intermediates, or a ligand or co-catalyst that facilitates bond formation or cleavage.
Mechanistically, baseassisted reactions often proceed via generation of reactive intermediates such as enolates, carbanions, or metal-bound
Applications span organic synthesis, organometallic catalysis, and materials chemistry. In organic synthesis, baseassisted deprotonation can enable
Terminology varies; some authors reserve the term for cases where the base exerts a direct mechanistic role,
See also: base catalysis, enolate chemistry, deprotonation, organometallic catalysis.