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Solvolysis
In organic chemistry, solvolysis is a special type of nucleophilic substitution where the nucleophile is a solvent molecule. The reaction mechanism for this chemical reaction is an SN1 reaction.
Solvolysis of a chiral reactant results in the racemate (as expected in SN1) but is often accompanied by Walden inversion. This is explained by postulating an ion pair whereby the leaving anion is still in close proximity to the carbocation and effectively shielding it from an attack by the nucleophile.
10-26-2009 08:16:03
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The contents of this article is licensed from www.wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License. Click here to see the transparent copy and copyright details