Question

What are electrophiles and nucleophiles? Give suitable examples for each.

Answer 1

Electrophiles: 

Electrophiles are reagents that are attracted towards negative charge or electron rich center. They are either positively charged ions or electron deficient neutral molecules. 

Example:

CO₂ , AlCl₃ , BF₃ , FeCl₃ , NO⁺ , NO⁺₂ ,, etc.

Nucleophiles: 

Nucleophiles are reagents that has high affinity for electropositive centers. They possess an atom has a unshared pair of electrons. They are usually negatively charged ions or electron rich neutral molecules. 

Example. NH₃, R-NH₂, R-SH, H₂O, R-OH, CN^- . OH- etc.