Question

Question 12.12 What are electrophiles and nucleophiles? Explain with examples.

Class XI Organic Chemistry : Some Basic Principles and Techniques Page 362

Answer 1

Electrophile :-  ELECTRO + PHILLIC 
                              |                       | 
                       electron             loving 
                   (-ve charge)   
electrophile means negative center loving species.
          the species that can accept an electron pair is known as electrophile. 
 How to identified a electrophile:
  1.  all simple cation is electrophile ( H⁺,Br⁺,NO⁺ etc)
  2. The species with vacant d- orbital in central atom (PCl₃,SF₆ 
  3.  All halogens 
  4. atoms with sextet (O,S, Se etc)

(b)NUCLEOPHILE : NUCLEO   + PHILE 
                                      |                   |
                              nucleus            loving
                             (+ve charge)
thus, positive center loving species are known as nucleophile.
the species that can give a lone pair of electron is known as nucleophile. 
How to identified nucleophile :
 1.  usually anions are nucleophile (NH₂⁻,OH⁻,CH₃⁻ etc)
 2. the species having lone pair on the central atom are nucleophiles.(NH₃,H₂O,ROH  etc)

Answer 2

Answer:

Electrophiles are electron deficient species and can accept an electron pair from electron rich species. Examples include carbocations and carbonyl compounds. A nucleophile is electron rich species and donates electron pairs to electron deficient species. Examples include carbanions, water , ammonia, cyanide ion etc.