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In chemistry, a nucleophile is a chemical species that forms bonds by donating an electron pair. All molecules and ions with a free pair of electrons or at least one pi bond can act as nucleophiles. Because nucleophiles donate electrons, they are Lewis bases. Nucleophilic describes the affinity of a nucleophile to bond with positively charged ...
tert-Butoxide, on the other hand, is a strong base, but a poor nucleophile, because of its three methyl groups hindering its approach to the carbon. Nucleophile strength is also affected by charge and electronegativity : nucleophilicity increases with increasing negative charge and decreasing electronegativity.
Protic solvents react with strong nucleophiles with good basic character in an acid/base fashion, thus decreasing or removing the nucleophilic nature of the nucleophile. The following table shows the effect of solvent polarity on the relative reaction rates of the S N 2 reaction of 1-bromobutane with azide (N 3 – ).
A strong base is a basic chemical compound that can remove a proton (H +) from (or deprotonate) a molecule of even a very weak acid (such as water) in an acid–base reaction. Common examples of strong bases include hydroxides of alkali metals and alkaline earth metals, like NaOH and Ca(OH) 2, respectively. Due to their low solubility, some ...
The current definition of the Michael reaction has broadened to include nucleophiles other than enolates. [9] Some examples of nucleophiles include doubly stabilized carbon nucleophiles such as beta-ketoesters, malonates, and beta-cyanoesters. The resulting product contains a highly useful 1,5-dioxygenated pattern.
Thus, organolithium reagents are strongly basic and nucleophilic. Some of the most common applications of organolithium reagents in synthesis include their use as nucleophiles, strong bases for deprotonation, initiator for polymerization, and starting material for the preparation of other organometallic compounds.
In organic synthesis, cyanide, which is classified as a strong nucleophile, is used to prepare nitriles, which occur widely in many chemicals, including pharmaceuticals. Illustrative is the synthesis of benzyl cyanide by the reaction of benzyl chloride and sodium cyanide.
An application of HSAB theory is the so-called Kornblum's rule (after Nathan Kornblum) which states that in reactions with ambident nucleophiles (nucleophiles that can attack from two or more places), the more electronegative atom reacts when the reaction mechanism is S N 1 and the less electronegative one in a S N 2 reaction.