Secondary alkyl halides are more reactive than primary alkyl halides and tertiary alkyl halides are more reactive than the secondary ones. Explain.
Alkyl groups are electron-repelling (or electron releasing), so larger the number of alkyl groups attached to the carbon atom of the C—X bond, the greater is the electron density on this carbon atom and consequently there is a greater repulsion of the shared electrons towards the X-atom of the C—X bond.
From the above, it is clear that X atom is released as X– most readily in tertiary halides and least readily in primary halides. Hence, tertiary halides are most reactive, while primary halides are least reactive.
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