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Is nitrogen more nucleophilic than oxygen?

Answer 1

Carter Allen

Yes, nitrogen is more nucleophilic than oxygen.

An atom of nitrogen is bigger than an atom of oxygen.

As a result, the outer electrons are held looser and can be donated more readily by a nucleophile.

Consequently, the nucleophilicity order is

#"RNH"_2 > "ROH"# and #"NH"_2^(-) > "OH"^-#.

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Answer 2

Christian Anderson

Yes, nitrogen is generally more nucleophilic than oxygen. This is because nitrogen has a lone pair of electrons in its valence shell, making it more available to donate electron density compared to oxygen, which has two lone pairs but is more electronegative, thus less nucleophilic. However, the nucleophilicity of nitrogen and oxygen can vary depending on the specific chemical context and reaction conditions.

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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.