The superbasic nature of the reagent is a consequence of the in situ formation of the corresponding organopotassium compound, as well as changes to the aggregation state of the alkyllithium species.
Commonly, the mixture called Schlosser's base is produced by combining n-butyllithium and potassium tert-butoxide in a one-to-one ratio.
The high reactivity of Schlosser's base is exploited in synthetic organic chemistry for the preparation of organometallic reagents.
Although there are similarities, the reactivities of Schlosser's base and the isolated alkylpotassium reagent are not identical.
A study of the base prepared from neopentyllithium (neo-C5H11Li) and potassium t-butoxide (t-BuOK) has led to the spectroscopic and crystallographic identification of a series of constituent bimetallic clusters: LixKy(neo-C5H11)z(t-BuO)w, x + y = z + w = 7 or 8, in equilibrium with neopentylpotassium (neo-C5H11K) and lithium t-butoxide (t-BuOLi).