Acetone Enolate-HaloBenzene Reaction A reaction I am trying to perform says to use a strong base like Sodium Amide with Acetone and Iodo-Benzene as reactants with DMSO as the solvent to form Phenylacetone. The main idea is to use the Acetone Enolate to form Phenylacetone when the Halogen is removed from the Halobenzene.

Can I just put NaOH in Acetone with a Halobenezene?
I could be wrong but I think this reaction works by forming benzyne, which then undergoes enolate attack:



I don't think hydroxide is basic enough to do this, so no I don't believe your proposed reaction conditions will work. Is there any reason you can't just use NaNH2, or BuLi, LDA etc.?