Home > Organic Chemistry > Homolytic v Heterolytic Cleavage

Why is the homolytic cleavage of the breaking bond drawn with a 'fish-hook' arrow?

Answer 1

Addison Armstrong

Homolytic cleavage uses a fish-hook arrow to show the movement of single electrons during the breaking of the bond.

Fish-hook arrows also indicate the motion of single electrons during the formation of a bond.

The fish-hook arrow distinguishes one-electron movement from two-electron movement.

Heterolytic cleavage involves the movement of two electrons at a time.

Here’s a video on the use of fish-hook arrows in homolytic reactions.

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Answer 2

Madison Anderson

The "fish-hook" arrow is used to represent homolytic cleavage because it indicates that each atom involved in the bond-breaking process receives one electron, resulting in the formation of two radicals.

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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.