Return to Contents Chapter 6 : Reactions of Alkenes : Addition Reaction Ch 6 contents

Electrophilic Addition reactions

Nucleophilic substitution at sp3 C

Electrophilic addition reactions are an important class of reactions that allow the interconversion of C=C and C≡C into a range of important functional groups including alkyl halides and alcohols.
Conceptually, addition is the reverse of elimination (see Chapter 5) which can be used to prepare alkenes.
 

What does the term "electrophilic addition" imply ? 
A electrophile, E+, is an electron poor species that will react with an electron rich species (the C=C
An addition implies that two systems combine to a single entity.
curly arrows for electrophilic addition

 

Depending on the relative timing of these events, slightly different mechanisms are possible: The following pointers may aid your understanding of these reactions:
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organic chemistry © Dr. Ian Hunt, Department of Chemistry University of Calgary