Nucleophilic substitution with hydroxide

Reaction class

Substitution (SN2)

Typical conditions

Hydroxide in water or alcohol. A crowded carbon eliminates instead, so this is the answer for a primary halide and not for a tertiary one.

Mass balance

balanced — the co-products are written out, not dropped

Mechanism

Bimolecular nucleophilic substitution, one concerted step

Conditions are what the literature ordinarily uses, recorded so you can see whether yours are in the usual range. They are not a procedure and they are not scaled to your flask.

One step. The nucleophile comes in on the opposite side from the leaving group, and the carbon turns inside out as the exchange happens.

1. 1The nucleophile pushes the leaving group out

This is the pathway taught for the class, not a record of what was observed. On the platform it is drawn on the structures you supply, with the curly arrows on the atoms that actually move.