For any chemical reaction, the questions of the reaction path ("What will happen?") and the thermodynamics ("To what extent will the reaction occur?") are joined by a third important aspect: the kinetics ("How fast does the reaction proceed?"). In 1929, the terms "electrophile" and "nucleophile" were introduced for organic species characterized by a lack or surplus of electrons, respectively. Since then, it has been a major objective of organic chemists to numerically quantify reactivities. The linear free energy relationship log k = s(N + E) - developed by Mayr in 1994 - seeks to help...
For any chemical reaction, the questions of the reaction path ("What will happen?") and the thermodynamics ("To what extent will the reaction occur?")...
