Stereochemistry of the SN2 reaction

Both 2-bromooctane and 2-octanol are chiral compounds. If you have studied the stereochemistry part of the Mol4D tutorials, you should know that this means that a molecule of either of them is not superimposable on its mirror image. You can check this yourself for 2-bromooctane below:

What is the configuration of the left 2-bromooctane?

R
S

The animation on the left depicts the SN2 reaction of 2-bromooctane with OH-. If you take a close look at the stereochemistry of this reaction, you will notice that the product of this reaction, 2-octanol, has a configuration that is opposite to that of the reactant, 2-bromooctane. A reaction like this is said to proceed with inversion of configuration. Let's take a closer look at the reactant and product.


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