- Joined
- Jan 6, 2003
- Messages
- 911
- Reaction score
- 0
is this a nucleophile....C(OH)-R??
Nucleophile Question!!
- Thread starter yalla22
- Start date
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2004
- Messages
- 398
- Reaction score
- 1
a nucleophile isn't the whole molecule - just atoms within a molecule (you can have a nucleophile and an electrophile in the same molecule), although it is often spoken as "this molecule acts as the nucleophile, blah blah".
That said - your sturcture doesn't have enough around the carbon atom. An -OH group and one R group? unless you meant to write R-CHO - an aldehyde. Then the carbonyl carbon is electrophilic. The carbonyl oxygen is <slightly> nucleophilic.
Only out of Orgo for a week, so knowledge is going fast. Hope this is right . . .
That said - your sturcture doesn't have enough around the carbon atom. An -OH group and one R group? unless you meant to write R-CHO - an aldehyde. Then the carbonyl carbon is electrophilic. The carbonyl oxygen is <slightly> nucleophilic.
Only out of Orgo for a week, so knowledge is going fast. Hope this is right . . .
- Joined
- Nov 1, 2003
- Messages
- 2,336
- Reaction score
- 6
Do you mean an alcohol as in R-OH? The lone pairs on the oxygen make alcohol a moderate nucleophile.
