chemistry

A carbocation is a species where a carbon atom bonds to three carbon atoms and has a positive charge. Carbocations are electron deficient species and therefore very reactive and unstable . The simplest carbocation is the methyl cation CH 3 + : Fig. 1: The methyl cation is the simplest carbocation. It has only six electrons in the outer shell and is electron deficient The methyl cation has only three bonds to the positively charged center, only six electrons in the outer shell and is electron deficient. It is planar trigonal with an empty p orbital. The methyl cation is so unstable that is rarely formed even in the gas phase. Most stable carbocations have extra stabilization mainly from electron donating functional groups but even these relatively stable cations cannot be detected in normal solutions by NMR. Carbocations are characterized as primary , secondary or tertiary depending upon the number of bonds that the carbon atom with the positive charge has with other carbon ato...