Electrophiles/Nucleophiles/Acids/Bases confusion

[CyborgNinjaX]

In all my time taking Organic Chemistry, I never ever figured out how to differentiate between electrophiles and nucleophiles. I had a really hard time distinguishing between all of them. What complicates this is the inclusion of acids and bases to the whole mix. How do acids and bases fall into this?

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[skyisblue]

One can equate an electrophile to a Lewis Acid and a nucleophile to a Lewis Base. The terms electrophile and nucleophile are used when dealing with carbon bonds. I hope that helps!

 

[Streetwolf]

Nucleophile - look for lone pairs.
Electron - look for no lone pairs.

Rule of thumb especially for the nucleophile. Probably won't work every time but a lot of the compounds they give will work out that way.

 

[Mila]

In addition to the two posts above, nucleophiles are also negative or neutral in charge while electrophiles are positive or neutral in charge.