Chemical Properties
Ethylene oxide readily reacts with various compounds, breaking a C–O bond and opening the cycle. Its typical reactions are with nucleophiles which proceed via the SN2 mechanism both in acidic (weak nucleophiles: water, alcohols) and alkaline media (strong nucleophiles: OH–, RO–, NH3, RNH2, RR'NH, etc.). The general reaction scheme is
and more specific reactions are described below.
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