An electrostatic potential map of boron trifluoride is shown. Is BF3 likely to be a nucleophile

An electrostatic potential map of boron trifluoride is...

An electrostatic potential map of boron trifluoride is shown. Is $\mathrm{BF}_{3}$ likely to be a nucleophile or an electrophile? Draw a Lewis structure for $\mathrm{BF}_{3}$, and explain your answer.

Key Concepts

Electrostatic Potential Maps

Electrostatic potential maps are graphical representations of the electron density in a molecule. They help identify areas of relative electron richness or deficiency, which correlate with nucleophilic (electron rich) or electrophilic (electron poor) sites, respectively.

Electron Deficiency

Electron deficiency refers to a situation where an atom, usually a central atom in a molecule, has fewer than eight electrons in its valence shell. This renders the molecule prone to accepting electrons, making it electrophilic in nature.

Lewis Structures

A Lewis structure is a diagram that depicts the bonding between atoms in a molecule as well as any lone pairs of electrons. It is used to visualize the distribution of electrons that leads to properties like electron deficiency or excess in molecules.

Electrophilicity and Nucleophilicity

These concepts describe the tendency of a chemical species to either accept or donate electrons. An electrophile is electron deficient and will accept an electron pair during a chemical reaction, while a nucleophile is electron rich and donates an electron pair to form a new bond.

Transcript

00:01 In this question, we are going to determine whether boron tri fluoride acts as a nucleophile or an electrophile.

00:11 So, nucleophiles, they are electron rich, and they can donate an electron pair.

00:39 Therefore, there could be neutral species or they can be negatively charged.

00:59 Electrophiles, however, they are electron 4 and they have an empty orbital that can accept an electron pair and they can be neutral or positively charged.

02:01 Okay, now let's look at boron trifluoride.

02:12 Okay, so now let's count the total number of elections.

02:18 So we're looking at the valent shell electrons.

02:21 So the total number of electrons, we're looking at the valence electrons here.

02:38 It will be the valence electrons on boron plus the valent electrons on the fluorine.

03:15 So, boron has three automoblast electrons and fluorine has seven, but they are three fluoride atoms.

03:23 So three and seven so there are total of 24 valence electrons in this molecule so now let's try to put this together in form of bonding since boron is a less electron negative of the two let's place that in the center and let's draw three boron fluoride bonds so each bond uses two electrons so we have three boron fluoride bands, so that we'll use six electrons.

04:34 Okay, so the remaining electrons is going to be 24 minus 6, which is 18.

05:03 So we have 18 more electrons to account for...

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