Upending a fundamental reaction in organic chemistry—discovery of a new nucleophilic substitution reaction
Friday, January 25, 2019 - 07:10
in Biology & Nature
Nucleophilic substitution is a class of chemical reactions encountered throughout organic chemistry, including those used to manufacture common petrochemical and pharmaceutical products. Its underlying mechanism was discovered 82 years ago by the British chemists Edward Hughes and Christopher Ingold, who showed that an electron-rich chemical species, called a nucleophile, "attacks" and replaces an electron-poor fragment of an organic molecule, called a leaving group.