In
organic chemistry, a
nucleophilic addition reaction is an
addition reaction where a
chemical compound with an
electron-deficient or
electrophilic double or
triple bond, a
p bond, reacts with electron-rich reactant, termed a
nucleophile, with disappearance of the double bond and creation of two new
single, or
s, bonds. The reactions are involved in the
biological synthesis of compounds in the
metabolism of every living
organism, and are used by chemists in academia and industries such as
pharma to prepare most new complex
organic chemicals, and so are central to organic chemistry. Addition reactions require the presence of groups with multiple bonds in the electrophile: carbon–
heteroatom multiple bonds as in
carbonyls,
imines, and
nitriles, or carbon–carbon double or triple bonds.