What are electrophilic addition reactions of alkenes?

Alkenes contain a pi bond, which is a site of high electron density, since it contains a pair of electrons delocalised around the two bonded carbon atoms. Because of this, the pi bond can act as a nucleophile (something which can act as an electron pair donor), and donate a pair of electrons to an electrophile (something which acts as an electron pair acceptor). The pi bond breaks, and the alkene forms a new bond with the atoms of the electrophile it donated the pair of electrons to, whilst a bond in the electrophile breaks. We end up with something called an intermediate: the alkene ends up having a positive charge, and is called a carbocation, and the group of atoms left from the electrophile has a negative charge. The pair of electrons of the negatively charged group is donated to the carbocation to form a new bond. Electrophilic addition reactions are very common with an alkene and molecules like the hydrogen halides (such as HCl, HBr, HI) and the halogens (such as Br2).

JM

Related Chemistry A Level answers

All answers ▸

State and explain the trend in melting points of diamond, iodine and hydrogen fluoride.


A white substance is placed on the table in front of you, explain what methods/techniques you could use to determine what compound the substance is


Can you help me with the question: "State and explain the trend in boiling temperature of hydrogen halides down the group"?


The ionic product of water, Kw = 2.93 × 10−15 mol dm−6 at 10 °C. Calculate the pH of a 0.0131 mol dm−3 solution of calcium hydroxide at 10 °C Give your answer to two decimal places.