It has been found that α-effects in nucleophilic reactions, unexpectedly large nucleophilicity due to adjacent unpaired electrons, are strongly dependent on the structure of substrate. The nucleophilic cleavages of 4-nitrobenzoate esters and 4-methylbenzoate esters by HOO− have been systematically investigated in detail. When the leaving groups of substrates are sufficiently good (aryl, 2, 2, 2-trifluoroethyl, and 2, 2-dichloroethyl esters), α- ...