SNi

In chemistry, Si (substitution nucleophilic internal) refers to a specific, regio-selective but not often encountered reaction mechanism for nucleophilic aliphatic substitution. The name was introduced by Cowdrey et al. in 1937 to label nucleophilic reactions which occur with retention of configuration, but later was employed to describe various reactions that proceed with a similar mechanism.

A typical representative organic reaction displaying this mechanism is the chlorination of alcohols with thionyl chloride, or the decomposition of alkyl chloroformates, the main feature is retention of stereochemical configuration. Some examples for this reaction were reported by Edward S. Lewis and Charles E. Boozer in 1952. Mechanistic and kinetic studies were reported few years later by various researchers.