Question

Is water an electrophile?

Answer 1

Electrophile is generally made up from two words called electro and phile where electro means electron and phile means loving i.e. those species that are electron loving in nature. Water generally contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms. It is inorganic, transparent, tasteless and colorless.

Complete step-by-step answer: Electrophiles are generally positive in nature or can be neutral; these are generally electron deficient in electrons and can easily accept electrons and movement of electrons depends upon the density of electrons. They can move from high density areas to low density areas. Electrophile can also be termed as Lewis acid.
Water is termed as an electrophile or we can say Lewis acid and an acid is that substance which contain ${{H}^{+}}$ ${{H}^{+}}$ ion and in water each hydrogen atom has a ${{H}^{+}}$ ion. So it behaves as an electrophile as water molecules can release a proton and form a bond with the nucleophile. Water can also act as a nucleophile as the oxygen atom contains two lone pairs and also have negative charge because of its high electronegativity value. Which defines that water can easily provide an electron pair to an electrophile so this can also act as a nucleophile.
Thus from the above discussion we can say that water can act as electrophile.

Note: Electrophile can undergo electrophilic addition and electrophilic substitution reactions. Nucleophiles are those substances which are electron rich in nature and have the ability to donate electrons and these are nucleus loving species.