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Topic: Rationalizing transition state energy in SN2 reactions  (Read 1138 times)

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Offline j.k.11

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Rationalizing transition state energy in SN2 reactions
« on: July 24, 2016, 09:38:55 PM »
Hi, I was just wondering if my rationale for transition state energy was correct since my book kinda skipped.


So in my textbook, they basically established that: The difference in energy between the reactants and the transition state determines the activation energy of a single step SN2 reaction. In secondary and tertiary substrates, steric hindrances raise the energy of the transition state, increasing activation energy and slowing down the reaction.
The book also drew a primary substrate and showed that the transition state had partial negative charges near the nucleophile and the leaving group.

I just wanted to clarify: when the book says steric hindrances raise the energy of the transition state, do they mean that the electron cloud of more alkyl groups or something cause more repulsion between the leaving group and nucleophile, raising energy? or something else?

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