When bromoethane CH3CH2Br reacts with sodium hydroxide NaOH in a nucleophilic substitution reaction, the products formed are ethanol CH3CH2OH and sodium bromide NaBr . The reaction follows an SN2 Substitution Nucleophilic Bimolecular mechanism. In the SN2 mechanism, the nucleophile hydroxide ion, OH- attacks the electrophilic carbon center the carbon bonded to the bromine atom from the opposite side of the leaving group bromide ion, Br- . The bond between the carbon and the leaving group breaks simultaneously as the bond between the carbon and the nucleophile forms. This leads to the formation of ethanol and sodium bromide as products. The overall reaction can be written as:CH3CH2Br + NaOH CH3CH2OH + NaBr