Nucleophiles and Electrophiles - Organic Chemistry

A good nucleophile should not be bulky. If the nucleophile is bulky, the compound will not be able to reach the carbonyl carbon, where the reaction occurs. With increased steric hindrance due to a bulkier nucleophile, the reaction will run slowly, and the compound is not a good nucleophile. Good nucleophiles also want to give away electrons so that the reaction can occur. This means that conjugate bases make better nucleophiles than acids.

is least nucleophilic because its oxygen has no negative charge, and oxygen is more electronegative than sulfur, thus the lone pair of electrons on oxygen are more stable than they would be on sulfur or nitrogen.

This question tests your knowledge about electron donation, as well as acidity. The question asks you to identify the species with the highest pKa, which means you need to look for the R group that will be the most donating. Electron donation will destabilize the conjugate base anion, localized partially on the oxygen of the hydroxyl moiety; the result is a less acidic acid, and a higher pKa.

Of the answer choices, three are electron-withdrawing. These include the nitro (-NO2), the ketone (-CCOMe), and the carboxyl (-COOH). The only answer choices that are electron-donating are the methyl (-Me), and the ether (-OMe). As the ether can push its lone pairs into the pi system of the ring and the carboxyl group, it is the stronger electron-donating group. The methyl can only donate electrons through inductive effects, or electronic polarization of sigma bonds, which is not as strong of an electron donation effect. Thus, -OMe is the correct answer.

A Lewis acid is an electron pair acceptor. A Lewis base is an electron pair donor.

The carbocation is clearly trying to accept electrons due to the positive charge. is ionic and neutral. The boron in has only three electrons, and they are all creating bonds with fluorines.

The correct answer has a lone pair on the nitrogen, and thus has electrons to donate and as a Lewis base. is not a Lewis acid.

The above reaction would more readily proceed if the electrophilicity of the carbonyl carbon were enhanced. This may be achieved through electron withdrawal via the R group.

The ether (-OMe), the methyl (-Me), and the hydroxyl (-OH), would all produce a electron-donating effect, and are thus incorrect answers.

The nitro group (-NO2), and the positively charged, tetra-substituted amino group (consider the structure once this trimethyl amino group is connected to the aryl ring) are both electron-withdrawing. As the trimethyl amino group will have an overall positive charge (and the nitro group is neutral overall), the trimethyl amino group is the stronger electron-withdrawing moiety, and is thus the correct answer.

Note that many of these carbonyl groups are actually part of various functional groups. For example, the gold is an aldehyde, the green and purple are both ketones, the red is an amide, and the blue is an ester. We know the electrophilicity of carbonyl-containing functional groups is as follows:

Thus, our aldehyde, in gold, is the most electrophilic.

A Lewis acid is an electron pair acceptor. A Lewis base is an electron pair donor.

is an ionic molecule and is neutral. and have positive charges and are electron pair acceptors, as they are more stable when they are neutral.

The correct answer, , has a lone pair on the nitrogen atom that can be donated to form bonds with other atoms, so it is a Lewis base.

Electrophiles are substances that accept an electron pair to form a covalent bond, and nucleophiles are those that donate an electron pair to form a covalent bond. The chloride and iodide ions are both nucleophiles, as they each have a charge of and would thus be willing to donate their extra electron. Ammonia () is also a nucleophile, as the nitrogen has a lone pair of electrons to donate. The methyl carbocation (carbon attached to three hydrogen atoms, with a positive charge) is an electrophile. The positive charge on the carbon makes it willing to accept an electron pair to form a covalent bond.

A nucleophile acts by donating a pair of electrons to another atom's nucleus. In general, a negatively charged compound is going to be a stronger nucleophile than a neutral compound. In addition, as one proceeds down a given column of the periodic table, the nucleophilicity increases because the electrons are not held as tightly to the nucleus (electronegativity decreases).

is the best nucleophile, because it has a negative charge (more electron density), and its electrons are held less tightly than those of because sulfur is less electronegative than oxygen.

There are two major types of nitrogen-containing moieties in this molecule.

First, there are the aromatic nitrogenated groups, such as the purple, green, and gold. All three of these nitrogens, when reacted with an electrophile such as Boc anhydride, would produce positively charged species. This alone would be unfavorable, however, as these nitrogens each donate a lone pair to their aromatic systems, donating this lone pair to an electrophile would break the aromaticity of the system. Breaking aromaticity is always highly unfavorable, and hence, none of these three would readily react with Boc anhydride.

Second, there are the aliphatic nitrogenated groups, such as the red and blue. Of these two, the red is tertiary and the blue is secondary. This means the red would produce a positively charged, tetrasubstituted product when reacting with Boc anhydride, whereas the blue would not form a charged product. The blue amine is also more sterically available, and is the correct answer, as it has the best ability to act as a nucleophile.

In a protic solvent, the larger the atom the better the nucleophile. Atomic radius increases as you go down a group on the periodic table. Also, the more electronegative an atom/nucleophile, like fluorine, the higher the capability of forming hydrogen bonds with protic solvents, thus hindering their effectiveness as a nucleophile.

The periodic trends of electronegativity and charge stability are useful tools for predicting nucleophilic strength. First, it is important to recognize that the two charged species, and are the two strongest nucleophiles. This is because the destabilizing negative charge present in these species may be neutralized by donating a lone pair to the formation of a chemical bond. As we know, opposite charges attract, so species bearing a full negative charge are drawn to electron-poor regions. Uncharged species such as water and ammonia carry a lone pair capable of bonding, but are less energetically drawn towards positive charges.

Ammonia is a stronger nucleophile than water because nitrogen is less electronegative than oxygen. What this means is that the nitrogen-bound lone pair of ammonia is more loosely contained than the oxygen-bound lone pairs of water. As a result, they are more easily donated to form a bond at an electron-poor carbon.

From this trend, one might expect that fluoride ions would be less nucleophilic than chloride ions since fluorine is more electronegative. However, moving down a group of the periodic table, atomic radius increases. Anions are stabilized by spreading electron density across an electron cloud of greater volume, such as that of compared to the smaller . As such, the correct ordering of species is II, I, III, IV.

The molecules are almost exactly the same, except that each molecule contains a different group 6 atom. Size increases as we move down the group 6 column, and therefore nucleophelicity increases. Larger and less electronegative atoms hold onto their electrons more loosely, and are stronger nucleophiles.

In aprotic solvents, nucleophilicity increases with electronegativity when dealing with atoms in the same group (column on the periodic table).

When discussing nucleophilic strength, we can begin to see trends. However, it is important to note that the question asked for the strongest nucleophile in aprotic solvent. The correct answer is .

In polar protic solvents, electronegative nucleophiles tend to hydrogen bond with the solvent, inhibiting the nucleophile's nucleophilicity. However, in aprotic solvents, this does not occur and so basicity correlates to nucleophilicity.

Nucleophile are electron-rich species that form bonds with electron-poor species. When thinking in terms of acids and bases, bases tend to form bonds with protons making them strong nucleophiles while, acids usually donate protons making them weak nucleophiles.

forms strong hydrogen bonds with polar protic solvents, which makes it less able to interact with any target molecules (electrophiles). Note: in a polar aprotic solvent, hydrogen bonds cannot form, and is more nucleophilic than .

The ordering from best nucleophile to worst nucleophile is as follows:

Smaller molecules are better nucleophiles than larger ones (they are not as sterically hindered). is a better nucleophile than because nitrogen is less electronegative than oxygen (Look for the the lower electronegativity on the atom holding the lone pair of electrons). Thus, the lone pair of electrons on nitrogen are not as stable as those on oxygen, and will readily donate its pair of electrons to another species.

The larger the atom, not molecule, the better the better the nucleophile . Atomic radius increases as you go down a group on the periodic table. Nucleophilicity can also be determined according to strength of the anion as a conjugate base. Remember that is the strongest acid and thus has the weakest/least stable conjugate base.

is the weakest base as its negative charge is spread out more evenly over the large atom. Thus, it is the best leaving group of these four halogens. It is the best leaving group due to its largest size and distribution of negative charge.