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Which is more stable carbonation ? #("CH"_3)_2"C"^"+""-F"# or #("CH"_3)_2"C"^"+""-CH"_3# And why ?

Answer 1

Addison Armstrong

The more stable carbocation is #("CH"_3)_2 stackrelcolor(blue)("+")("C")"-CH"_3#.

The difference is in the #"F"# and the #"CH"_3# groups.

#"F"# is an electron withdrawing group, and #"CH"_3# is an electron donating group.

A carbocation becomes more stable and loses less charge when it receives electron donations.

A more stable carbocation is the second one.

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Answer 2

Lucy Alessi

The carbonation ("CH"_3)_2"C"^"+""-F" is more stable because fluorine is more electronegative than hydrogen, leading to a stronger carbon-fluorine bond compared to the carbon-hydrogen bond in ("CH"_3)_2"C"^"+""-CH"_3.

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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.