How does the reactivity of a nucleophile change across a row in the periodic table?

Answer 1

The reactivity of a nucleophile decreases from left to right in a row across the Periodic Table.

A nucleophile is a Lewis base that donates an electron pair to an atom other than hydrogen. In organic chemistry, this usually means a carbon atom.

Electronegativity increases from left to right across the Periodic Table.

This means that atoms on the right hand side are less likely to donate their electrons to form bonds with other atoms.

Their nucleophilicity decreases from left to right.

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Answer 2

Ryan Andrews

It generally decreases.

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Answer from HIX Tutor

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.