Hi! Does anybody know if tetramethyl ethylene diamine (TMEDA) can activate sodium hydroxide, thus making it more nucleophilically active in organic solvents? Thank you!
Thanks Michael for your answer. Yes we can use TMEDA as a solvent, though its not very convenient for us. And do u think the basicity of -OH ion will differ in pure TMEDA solution and in the equimolar or 1,5 equivalent solution of TMEDA and NaOH in some inert organic solvent?
TMEDA can not activate NaOH. Salting-out effect of NaOH is very strong - it is enough for much more powerful ligands such as aza-crowns (cyclen, cyclam) . (Pre)drying of various amines with NaOH and especially with KOH is common in lab practice - because of negligible solubility. This task need phase-transfer catalysis (PTC) - so tetraalkylammonium salts are suitable. Ask people around for Adogen or Aliquat