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Electrophilic Atom

  • Page ID
    40155
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    An electrophilic atom is an electron-deficient atom in a molecule or ion. Use the following generalizations to identify most common types of electron-deficient atoms:

    1. An atom that lacks an octet of valence electrons in one or more resonance forms is electron-deficient.

    eg. 1:

    electrophilicatom1.png

    eg. 2:

    electrophilicatom2.png

    eg. 3:

    electrophilicatom3.png

    2. A formally neutral atom bearing a partial positive charge but no lone pairs is an electron-defficient atom.

    eg. 1:

    electrophilicatom4.png

    eg. 2:

    electrophilicatom5.png

    eg. 3:

    electrophilicatom6.png

    see also nucleophilic atom, nucleophile, electrophile


    This page titled Electrophilic Atom is shared under a All Rights Reserved (used with permission) license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Gamini Gunawardena via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.