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Sn2 Reaction Lab Report

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This experiment is based on the concept of performing SN2 reactions and analyzing how different factors affect said reactions. The factors in question for this experiment are steric hindrance, nucleophilicity, and nature of the leaving group. An SN2 reaction is a type of substitution reaction. A substitution reaction entails an alkyl having its leaving group (typically a halogen) replaced by a different atom. A nucleophilic substitution involves a nucleophile attacking a leaving group on a carbon atom. The nucleophile utilizes its lone pair of electrons to form a new bond with the carbon atom. There are two different types of substitution reactions. There are SN1 reactions (first order) and SN2 reactions (second order) (Weldegerima 2016). SN1 reactions are unimolecular and involve two separate steps. One of the two steps takes longer than the other and is called the rate limiting step. SN1 reactions tend to favor tertiary alkyl halides. SN2 reactions involve a strong nucleophile interacting with an electrophile carbon and making the leaving group detach from the …show more content…

Steric hindrance has to do with the amount of obstacles that stand between nucleophile and the leaving group. The more obstacles there are for the nucleophile to overcome to reach the leaving group, the slower the reaction occurs. In some cases, if the leaving group is heavily guarded the reaction won’t even occur. This is why SN2 reactions prefer primary alkyl halides. Nucleophilicity affecting SN2 reactions can be seen with amines. In most cases, if the nucleophilicity of the amine is high, it will lead to the reaction being successful. Lastly, the nature of the leaving group plays a vital role as well. Weak bases are considered the optimal leaving groups. So, if the nature of the leaving group is basic (preferably a weak base) the reaction will occur more successfully (Curtis

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