Talk:Nucleophilic substitution reaction

I need a scale or diagram that will show me which reactants are more powerful than others in there order. so i could look at it and see if a potassium would replace a sodium... and so on and so forth...

Sodium would never replace potassium or potassium sodium. Nucleophilic substitution requires nucleophiles, which under any remotely likely circumstance sodium and potassium are not. The order of reactivity for SN1 is 1º>2º>3º halides. SN2 is the opposate, with a requirement being that the nucleophile being added must be stronger than the nucleophile being replaced (IE, iodide is better than fluoride) EagleFalconn 17:52, 9 Dec 2004 (UTC)


 * I just read this- there are a couple of errors. Firstly the order is 1º<2º<3º for SN1, and the other way round for SN2.  Also, although SN2 requires a strong nucleophile, it does not have to be STRONGER than the one it is displacing- as long as there is a driving force.  That is a confusion of kinetic versus thermodynamic factors.

Walkerma 15:57, 28 July 2005 (UTC)

Proposed merger with Nucleophilic substitution
I placed the merger notice, as this article seems to cover the same things as the other one. I personally prefer the other article, but there may be things in THIS article that are worth keeping in the merged article. Walkerma 04:26, 17 July 2005 (UTC)