Chem Ch. 8
8.1 Functional Group Transformation by Nucleophilic Substitution Nucleophilic substitution reactions of alkyl halides are related to elimination reactions in that the halogen acts as a leaving group on carbon and is lost as an anion. The carbon-halogen bond of the alkyl halide is broken heterolytically: the two electrons in that bond are lost with the leaving group. The most frequently encountered nucleophiles are anions, which are used as their lithium, sodium, or potassium salts. If we use M to represent lithium, sodium, or potassium, some representative nucleophilic reagents are Table 8.1 illustrates an application of each of these to a functional group transformation. The