Identifying an Electrophile/Nucleophile
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Identifying an Electrophile/Nucleophile
I'm confused as to what can be an electrophile/nucleophile. I understand that an electrophile (lacking electrons) could be a cation of some sort or something with a positive charge, but a nucleophile's concept confuses me. Are all nucleophiles atoms? How come bonds can be nucleophiles? And is it possible for a bond to be an electrophile?
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Re: Identifying an Electrophile/Nucleophile
Nucleophiles are electron rich regions that have "excess electrons" which can be bonding regions or an atom with lone pairs. Bonds can be nulceophiles because there is an "excess of electron" there. I don't think bonds can be electrophiles since bonds involves electrons.
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Re: Identifying an Electrophile/Nucleophile
Nucleophile means "love positive charge" and electrophile means "love electron/negative charge" Therefore, nucleophiles are usually electron rich (double bonds, high electronegativity elements) or bear negative charge. Electrophiles are usually have (partially) negative charge. Thus, a bond can't be an electrophile since it's electron rich which is highly negative.
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Re: Identifying an Electrophile/Nucleophile
The book has a nice list that summarizes common nucleophiles as halide nucleophiles, oxygen nucleophiles, sulfur nucleophiles, and nitrogen nucleophiles. While it's not great to memorize stuff, I think just keeping in mind the common trends helps me identify nucelophiles!
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