Can #NH_3#; #Br_2#; #CH_3OH#; #NH_2OH# be considered an electrophilic reagents?

1 Answer
Aug 24, 2015

All of them can be considered as electrophiles.

Explanation:

An electrophile is a species that accepts a pair of electrons to form a new covalent bond.

This is also the definition of a Lewis acid!

The corresponding reactions would be

# underbrace("NH"_3)_(color(blue)("electrophile/acid"))+ underbrace ("B"^-)_(color(blue)("nucleophile/base")) → "H"_2"N"^"-" +"H-B"#

#underbrace ("NH"_3)_(color(blue)("electrophile/acid")) + underbrace ("B"^"-")_(color(blue)("nucleophile/base")) → "H"_2"N"^"-" +"HB"#

#underbrace("CH"_3"OH")_(color(blue)("electrophile/acid")) + underbrace("B"^"-")_(color(blue)("nucleophile/base")) → "CH"_3"O"^"-" + "HB"#

But in the first step in the addition of #"Br"_2# to alkenes, the #"Br"_2# acts as an electrophile acid.

#underbrace("H"_2"C=CH"_2) _(color(blue)("electrophile/acid")) + underbrace("Br"_2)_(color(blue)("nucleophile/base")) → "H"_2stackrel(+)("C")"-CH"_2"Br" + "Br"^-#