November 28, 2024, 10:44:18 AM
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Topic: Having problems understanding the mechanism behind this nucleophilic acyl sub.  (Read 2787 times)

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Offline heheikkeseher

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Any help would be appriciated!

Offline hypervalent_iodine

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Perhaps you could be clearer about what your problem is?

Offline heheikkeseher

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Perhaps you could be clearer about what your problem is?

Hey sorry for late answer. I can't really see what type of reaction the first or second step is. Also i'm having a terribly difficult time explaining what's going on

Offline wildfyr

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The lone pair on the nitrogen of aniline attacks the carbon of the carbonyl in acetic anhydride in the first step. That carbon is annotated to show that it is electron deficient.

As for what "type" I'm not sure what you mean. Its a nucleophile attacking an electrophile, like all organic chemistry is. Its not usual to categorize carbonyl attacks as SN1 or SN2 or anything like that.

Offline Babcock_Hall

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@OP, what chemical species is being transferred in the second step?  How does this help the reaction to proceed?

Offline heheikkeseher

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The lone pair on the nitrogen of aniline attacks the carbon of the carbonyl in acetic anhydride in the first step. That carbon is annotated to show that it is electron deficient.

As for what "type" I'm not sure what you mean. Its a nucleophile attacking an electrophile, like all organic chemistry is. Its not usual to categorize carbonyl attacks as SN1 or SN2 or anything like that.

I tried explaining it, and the comment I got was;

"This reaction is an nucleophilic acyl substituation, what 2 reactions does it consist of, what is the product of the first reaction and why do we get the product we do in the second reaction"


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