Nucleophilic

This video outlines the mechanisms of Sn1 and Sn2 nucleophilic substitution reactions of haloalkanes and explains why primary haloalkanes do not undergo Sn1 using a reaction profile diagram

One in a series looking at the chemistry of haloalkanes (alkyl halides). This video looks at the reaction of bromoethane with an ethanolic solution of potassium hydroxide. The contrast is drawn between nucleophilic substitution and elimination mechanisms. In substitution the hydroxide ions behave as nucleophiles, whereas in elimination, the hydroxide ions act as a Bronsted base bringing about deprotonation.

This video looks in detail at the nucleophilic addition reactions of ethanal and propanone with hydrogen cyanide (acidified solution of KCN actually). Cyanohydrins (hydroxynitriles) are formed. The lack of optical activity in chiral products is also explained in terms of the trigonal-planar geometry of the carbonyl.

This video looks at the use of lithium aluminium hydride (lithal) to reduce aldehydes and ketones to alcohols. It begins by looking at simple reaction shemes where the lithal is represented by [H]. It moves on to show an animation of the practical procedure itself and finally looks at the reaction mechanism (nucleophilic addition with hydride ions).