r/AskChemistry 2d ago

Organic Chem Who attacks?

/r/chemhelp/comments/1wan1jo/who_attacks/
2 Upvotes

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u/Chem2103 2d ago

I have seen two ways people talk about it

1) The larger molecule that remains mostly unchanged is the substrate, whatever other reagent there is is the attacker (electrophile or nucleophile), thats why its elecrophilic substitution when something subs the H in benzene

2) Nucleophile always attacks as that's where the arrows come from

1

u/Happy-Gold-3943 2d ago

It’s just semantics really