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By the end of these notes, you should be able to:
When chemicals react, they don't just magically transform — there is a step-by-step process showing how bonds break and new bonds form. This process is called a reaction mechanism. In organic chemistry (the study of carbon-based compounds), certain types of mechanisms appear again and again. Two of the most important ones at A2 level are:
Understanding these terms means you can describe how a reaction happens, not just what the products are.
Let's break this term into two parts to understand it fully.
An electrophile (pronounced ee-lek-tro-file) is a species (atom, molecule, or ion) that is electron deficient — meaning it is short on electrons and is attracted to areas where electrons are found. The word literally means "electron-loving."
Because electrophiles are short on electrons, they look for areas of high electron density (places with lots of electrons) to attack.
Simple way to remember it: An electrophile is like someone who is hungry for electrons — it goes looking for a place where electrons are available.
A substitution reaction is one where an atom or group of atoms gets replaced (substituted) by another atom or group.
Think of it like swapping one player on a sports team for another — one leaves, and a new one takes its place.
An electrophilic substitution reaction is one where:
So the net result is: one atom or group is swapped out and replaced by the electrophile.
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