In this chapter some theoretical and experimental reports in order to elucidate solvent effects (preferential solvation and iso-solvation effects, respectively) over nucleophilic aromatic substitution reactions as reaction model were examined. Solvent effects phenomena are introduced to predict their mechanism highlighting the hydrogen bond role mainly in ionic liquids, a new generation of solvents that can be designed in order to improve the reactivities of the reacting pair and intermediate species through of the potential energy surface (PES). Then, the preferential solvent effect may be defined as the difference between local and bulk compositions of the solute with respect to the various components of the solvent; usually mixtures of solvents and iso-solvation effect indicate the composition of a mixture in which the probe under consideration is solvated by approximately an equal number of cosolvent molecules in the solvent mixture.
Part of the book: Solvents, Ionic Liquids and Solvent Effects