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Physical chemistry

The fingerprints of reaction mechanisms

Nature volume 546, pages 608–609 (2017)Cite this article

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Small changes to molecular structures can transform how reactions occur, but studying reaction mechanisms directly is difficult. An imaging technique that provides direct insights into competing mechanisms might improve matters.

For decades, chemists have picked apart chemical reactions to understand each of the steps involved. Knowing the precise mechanism of a reaction — such as the order in which bonds are made or broken — allows us to predict the outcome, as well as to design molecules and materials, and to discover new chemistry. The determination of a reaction mechanism usually involves piecing together a variety of information from indirect observations, requiring both guesswork and sleuthing. Writing in Nature Communications, Carrascosa et al.1 report their use of a technique called velocity-map imaging to directly visualize not just a single mechanism, but two competing mechanisms.

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Figure 1: The SN2 reaction mechanism.
Figure 2: Velocity maps of the SN2 and E2 reaction mechanisms.

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References

  1. Carrascosa, E. et al. Nature Commun. 8, 25 (2017).

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  2. Ingold, C. K. Structure and Mechanism in Organic Chemistry 310 (Cornell Univ. Press, 1953).

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  3. Mikosch, J. et al. Science 319, 183–186 (2008).

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  1. the Department of Chemistry, Chemistry Research Laboratory, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3TA, UK

    Claire Vallance

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  1. Claire Vallance
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Correspondence to Claire Vallance.

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Vallance, C. The fingerprints of reaction mechanisms. Nature 546, 608–609 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/546608a

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