Similarly nitrite ion also represents an ambident
nucleophile with two different points of linkage [–O— N
i i
=O] The linkage
through oxygen results in alkyl nitrites while through nitrogen atom, it
leads to nitroalkanes Mechanism: This reaction has been found to proceed by two different
mechanims which are described below:
(a) Substitution nucleophilic bimolecular (SN2)
The reaction between CH3Cl and hydroxide ion to yield methanol and
chloride ion follows a second order kinetics, i e