Strong solid base reagents and catalysts based on carbonaceous supports

Abstract

Porous carbons are shown to have very high affinities for basic hydroxides, fluorides and oxides. The resulting materials are demonstrated to be strong base catalysts for solution and gas phase reactions. They can also be used as stoichiometric reagents to generate carbanions in solution. When the solid is filtered off and the solution temperature raised to initiate the reaction, very selective Michael addition reactions occur.