‘Flip-over’ nucleophilic substitution reaction challenges classic SN2 textbook mechanism
By 
Mason Wakley2026-05-14T13:30:00
Team behind work say this is a reminder that even simple reactions are more complicated than they first seem
Chemists have revealed a gas-phase nucleophilic substitution reaction where the molecule first ‘flips over’ before the nucleophile attacks, leaving the molecule’s configuration unchanged. ‘These [substitution reactions] are quite complicated and maybe these are more complicated than we learn,’ says theoretical chemist Gábor Czakó at the University of Szeged in Hungary, who was not involved in the work.