Electrophilic substitution

Electrophilic substitution (abbreviated SE) is a reaction mechanism in organic chemistry. It denotes substitution of an atom or an atomic group by an electrophile, an atom group having an electron deficiency of an item. This is a preferred reactions with electron-rich species, such as unsaturated carbon compounds and especially with aromatics. Both the entering and the leaving group are typically cationic. Electrophilic substitution is to be found almost exclusively in aromatic systems.

→ see main article for electrophilic aromatic substitution

Solvent effects

Electrophilic substitution often involves an ionic intermediate, and therefore often run faster than from polar solvents in non-polar. This is due to the fact that polar solvents are able to better stabilize the occurring polar transition states or intermediates, as a non-polar solvent.