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Concept
Electrophile
Summary
In chemistry, an electrophile is a chemical species that forms bonds with nucleophiles by accepting an electron pair. Because electrophiles accept electrons, they are Lewis acids. Most electrophiles are positively charged, have an atom that carries a partial positive charge, or have an atom that does not have an octet of electrons.
Electrophiles mainly interact with nucleophiles through addition and substitution reactions. Frequently seen electrophiles in organic syntheses include cations such as H+ and NO+, polarized neutral molecules such as HCl, alkyl halides, acyl halides, and carbonyl compounds, polarizable neutral molecules such as Cl2 and Br2, oxidizing agents such as organic peracids, chemical species that do not satisfy the octet rule such as carbenes and radicals, and some Lewis acids such as BH3 and DIBAL.
These occur between alkenes and electrophiles, often halogens as in halogen addition reactions. Common reactions include use of bromine water to titrate against a sample to deduce the number of double bonds present. For example, ethene + bromine → 1,2-dibromoethane:
C2H4 + Br2 → BrCH2CH2Br
This takes the form of 3 main steps shown below;
Forming of a π-complex
The electrophilic Br-Br molecule interacts with electron-rich alkene molecule to form a π-complex 1.
Forming of a three-membered bromonium ion
The alkene is working as an electron donor and bromine as an electrophile. The three-membered bromonium ion 2 consisted of two carbon atoms and a bromine atom forms with a release of Br−.
Attacking of bromide ion
The bromonium ion is opened by the attack of Br− from the back side. This yields the vicinal dibromide with an antiperiplanar configuration. When other nucleophiles such as water or alcohol are existing, these may attack 2 to give an alcohol or an ether.
This process is called AdE2 mechanism ("addition, electrophilic, second-order"). Iodine (I2), chlorine (Cl2), sulfenyl ion (RS+), mercury cation (Hg2+), and dichlorocarbene (:CCl2) also react through similar pathways.
Official source
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