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Chemistry · Glossary

What is Curly arrows?

Also known as: curly arrow · half-headed arrow

Definition 18.9 University Chemistry — Year 1 · Chapter 18 — Electronic Effects and Reactive Intermediates

In a mechanism, a curly arrow shows the movement of an electron pair: it starts on a lone pair or a bond and ends on an atom (where a lone pair or a new bond forms) or between two atoms (a new bond). A half-headed arrow shows the movement of a single electron, in radical reactions.

Curly arrows. Top: heterolysis of the C–Br bond, the pair going to bromine. Bottom: a proton transfer from water to hydroxide, written as the attack of a lone pair of the base on the hydrogen (the bond O–H of water then breaks, its pair staying on oxygen; the second arrow is left for ). Curly arrows. Top: heterolysis of the C–Br bond, the pair going to bromine. Bottom: a proton transfer from water to hydroxide, written as the attack of a lone pair of the base on the hydrogen (the bond O–H of water then breaks, its pair staying on oxygen; the second arrow is left for ).
Curly arrows. Top: heterolysis of the C–Br bond, the pair going to bromine. Bottom: a proton transfer from water to hydroxide, written as the attack of a lone pair of the base on the hydrogen (the bond O–H of water then breaks, its pair staying on oxygen; the second arrow is left for Exercise 18.4).
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