Molecular entanglement can strongly increase basicity

Brønsted basicity is a fundamental chemical property featured by several kinds of inorganic and organic compounds. In this Review, we treat a particularly high basicity resulting from the mechanical entanglement involving two or more molecular subunits in catenanes and rotaxanes. Such entanglement allows a number of basic sites to be in close proximity with each other, highly increasing the proton affinity in comparison with the corresponding, non-entangled counterparts up to obtain superbases, properly defined as mechanically interlocked superbases. In the following pages, the development of this kind of superbases will be described with a historical perusal, starting from the initial, serendipitous findings up to the most recent reports where the strong basic property of entangled molecular units is the object of a rational design.