The rate-determining step also involves the nucleophile. What is the nucleophile in the given SN2 reactions? Why does this nucleophile favor an SN2 reaction?
Introduction Up until now, we have been focusing on general laboratory techniques used in synthesizing, purifying and characterizing organic compounds. Today's experiment begins the transition to synthesis itself. The field of synthetic chemistry draws upon known reaction mechanisms to devise novel compounds or to devise ways of producing in the lab compounds that already exist in nature. Typically, this synthesis is a multi-step process. In the remainder of our lab sessions, we will be performing a number of basic reaction types that form some of the building blocks (basic steps) of synthetic chemistry pathways. The first reaction mechanisms you have studied in lecture are nucleophilic substitution reactions. During this experiment you will perform substitution reactions using a panel of various alkyl halides (halogenated alkanes, as well as a halogenated alkene and halogenated aromatic compound) as reactants. The reactants vary in two ways: 1) what halide (-Br, -Cl or-l) they have as the leaving group, and 2) the core structure of the alkyl/allyl/aryl reactant. Examples of the two different types of substitution reactions are given below. SN2 Br: CN NaBr Br HO H2o: +HBr 3
