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smonkey89 smonkey89
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12 years ago
I've read up a bit and i thought i understood this, but then i got confused. I read that nucleophiles tend to be on the LEFT hand side of the periodic table..but there are hardly any elements there that act as nucleophiles! Ca, K, Na, Li, Be..just to name a few, are not nucleophiles. They act better as electrophiles (correct me if i'm wrong). And in much the same way, electrophiles, apparently tend to be on the RIGHT side of the periodic table. So what? Cl, O, N, S, Br, I, P..are they all good electrophiles? According to all the examples i do, if anything, it's the other way around. please explain this!! I am really having trouble understanding what they mean by left and right hand side of the periodic table.

Also, I was doing a question that asked me to identify the more REACTIVE NUCLEOPHILE. It was between (CH3)3N and (CH3)3B. Now i chose the latter, because boron doesn't hold onto it's electrons as nitrogen does, because it is less electronegative. However, the answer states it is the former (CH3)3N that is the more reactive nucleophile. No explanation given. Please explain this discrepancy. thanks.
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12 years ago
Nucleophiles are Lewis bases, electrophiles are Lewis acids.
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rk90rk90
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12 years ago
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