Nucleophilic addition

In organic chemistry, a nucleophilic addition reaction is an addition reaction where a chemical compound with an electron-deficient or electrophilic double or triple bond, a π bond, reacts with electron-rich reactant, termed a nucleophile, with disappearance of the double bond and creation of two new single, or σ, bonds. The reactions are involved in the biological synthesis of compounds in the metabolism of every living organism, and are used by chemists in academia and industries such as pharmaceuticals to prepare most new complex organic chemicals, and so are central to organic chemistry. Addition reactions require the presence of groups with multiple bonds in the electrophile: carbon–heteroatom multiple bonds as in carbonyls, imines, and nitriles, or carbon–carbon double or triple bonds.

Nucleophilic addition reactions of nucleophiles with electrophilic double or triple bond (π bonds) create a new carbon center with two additional single, or σ, bonds. Addition of a nucleophile to carbon–heteroatom double or triple bonds such as >C=O or -C=N show great variety. These types of bonds are polar (have a large difference in electronegativity between the two atoms); consequently, their carbon atoms carries a partial positive charge. This makes the molecule an electrophile, and the carbon atom the electrophilic center; this atom is the primary target for the nucleophile. Chemists have developed a geometric system to describe the approach of the nucleophile to the electrophilic center, using two angles, the Bürgi–Dunitz and the Flippin–Lodge angles after scientists that first studied and described them.

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