Arrow pushing or electron pushing is a technique used to describe the progression of organic chemistry reaction mechanisms.[1] It was first developed by Sir Robert Robinson. In using arrow pushing, "curved arrows" or "curly arrows" are drawn on the structural formulae of reactants in a chemical equation to show the reaction mechanism. The arrows illustrate the movement of electrons as bonds between atoms are broken and formed. Arrow pushing never directly show the movement of atoms; it is used to show the movement of electron density, which indirectly shows the movement of atoms themselves. Arrow pushing is also used to describe how positive and negative charges are distributed around organic molecules through resonance. It is important to remember, however, that arrow pushing is a formalism and electrons (or rather, electron density) do not move around so neatly and discretely in reality.
Arrow pushing has been extended to inorganic chemistry, especially to the chemistry of s- and p-block elements. It has been shown to work well for hypervalent compounds.[2]
- ^ Clayden, Jonathan; Greeves, Nick; Warren, Stuart; Wothers, Peter (2001). Organic Chemistry (1st ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 123–133. ISBN 978-0-19-850346-0.
- ^ Abhik Ghosh, Steffen Berg, Arrow Pushing in Inorganic Chemistry: A Logical Approach to the Chemistry of the Main Group Elements, (John Wiley & Sons, 2014).