Electrophiles

Study Notes

An electrophile is a chemical species that accepts an electron pair from a nucleophile.
Electrophiles are Lewis acids because they accept electrons.
Electrophiles interact with nucleophiles through addition and substitution reactions.
Common electrophiles in organic syntheses include cations, polarized neutral molecules, oxidizing agents, and Lewis acids.
Hydrogen halides add to alkenes to give alkyl halides in hydrohalogenation.
The hydration reaction adds a molecule of water to a molecule of ethene and produces ethanol.
Chiral electrophiles are optically stable and can be used in enantioselective reactions.
Electrophilicity index is a method to rank electrophiles in order of reactivity.
Superelectrophiles are cationic electrophilic reagents with greatly enhanced reactivities in the presence of superacids.
Electrophiles are important in organic chemistry and have many industrial applications.
Nitromethane can be nitrated with nitronium tetrafluoroborate only in presence of a strong acid like fluorosulfuric acid.
The nitration occurs via the protonated nitronium dication.
Gitionic superelectrophiles have charged centers separated by no more than one atom.
Distonic superelectrophiles have charged centers separated by 2 or more atoms.
The protonitronium ion is an example of a gitionic superelectrophile.
F-TEDA-BF4 is an example of a distonic superelectrophile.
The nitronium tetrafluoroborate used for nitration is a distonic superelectrophile.
Nitromethane is a colorless, oily liquid with a slightly sweet odor.
Nitromethane is used as a fuel in racing cars and model engines.
Fluorosulfuric acid is a strong acid with the chemical formula HSO3F.