Addition-elimination sequence phosphorus nucleophiles

Kinetic studies have shown that the enolate and phosphorus nucleophiles all react at about the same rate. This suggests that the only step directly involving the nucleophile (step 2 of the propagation sequence) occurs at essentially the diffusion-controlled rate so that there is little selectivity among the individual nucleophiles. The synthetic potential of the reaction lies in the fact that other substituents which activate the halide to substitution are not required in this reaction, in contrast to aromatic nucleophilic substitution which proceeds by an addition-elimination mechanism (see Seetion 10.5). 

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