Nucleophilic Substition Reactions

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lso needed, such as a halide. But again, the experiment uses the halides as the nucleophile. Opposite of the SN2 reaction, the nucleophile must be a weaker Lewis base. The use of a polar protic solvent is needed for the mechanism to take place. The polar solvent allows for the re!
quired pronation of the carbon atom to occur, so the weaker nucleophile can begin to attack. The temperature of the SN1 mechanism also remains fairly low (Carey 331). The reaction will the proceed as follows:
CH CH CH

H C C X + Nu H C C + + Nu + X H C C Nu + X

CH CH CH

Since the nucleophile can add to either the front side or the backside of the carbocation intermediate, a racemic mixture of the product is produced. However, slightly more of the inverted enantiom...