What's the difference between an electrophile and a nucleophile?

It's really useful to know that 'phile' means love.

Electrophiles 'love' negative charge - this means they are attracted to regions of negative charge. And as such they tend to be positively charged.

Similarily Nucleophiles 'love' positive charge, so they tend to be negatively charged and will seek out postively charged regions.

SM

Related Chemistry A Level answers

All answers ▸

Suggest why the concentration of sodium hydroxide in a solution slowly decreases when left open to air


Predict the number of peaks in a carbon-13 NMR spectrum of the following carbonyl isomers of C5H8O. (i) CH3CH2CH2CH2CHO (ii) (CH3)3CCHO (iii) CH3COCH(CH3)2


Explain the reasons for the changes in reactivity of Phenol, Benzene and MethylBenzene


Describe the mechanism for bromination across a double bond