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Type of Nucleophile - Lone pair

Learning Objective: To study the types of nucleophiles commonly encountered in organic chemistry and their behavior in a chemical reaction.

Prerequisites: 

Chapter: Fundamentals of Organic Reactions

Sub-topic: Nucleophiles

Author's Note: Nucleophiles always will seek an electrophile, forming the majority of reactions in organic chemistry. However, out of the three types, identifying the correct type of nucleophile is the first step that will lead to the next step in predicting the product of a chemical reaction. In this section, I have covered the lone pair nucleophiles that can be neutral or contain a charge. I have covered identification, formation, and reaction. 

Type of Nucleophile - Lone pair

Certain atoms are more capable of being effective nucleophiles in chemical reactions. A few of those better-equipped atoms are Oxygen, Nitrogen, and Sulphur. Not surprisingly, they also form the most common functional groups of alcohols (R-OH),  phenols (Ar-OH), amines (R-NH2), thiols (R-SH), and carboxylic acid derivates (R-COOH, R-CO-R, R-CONH2, R-COCl, ROCOOR, RCHO) in organic chemistry. 

The other nucleophiles are ....

The nucleophiles are broadly divided into three categories  .....

Lone pair Nucleophile

Lone pairs are atoms’ unused electrons that did not participate in bond formation reactions.  These electrons on shown as dots (..) above the atom while drawing the molecules’ structure. 

Related Reading- The number of bonds an atom can form depends on its valency. (Chapter- Bonding in Atoms)

For example, the Oxygen atom belongs to group 6 and has six valence ....

 

 

Such heterolytic bond breakage is also responsible for creating negative charge centers on atoms ....

Subscribe to read about the nucleophiles, the significant  force driving a chemical reaction in organic chemistry.

 

Fundamentals of Organic Reactions
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