Ch. 18: Reactions of Benzene and Substituted Benzenes Flashcards
When benzene is a substituent, what is it called?
A phenyl group
Explain an electrophilic aromatic substitution reaction.
Aromatic compounds such as benzene undergo them. An electrophile substitutes for a hydrogen that is attached to a ring carbon of an aromatic compound.
What are the five most common electrophilic aromatic substitution reactions?
What is the general mechanism for an electrophilic aromatic substitution reaction?
What is a lewis acid?
a compound that accepts a share in an electron pair
What is requirement of the chlorination and bromination of benzene?
Requires a lewis acid catalyst such as FeBr3 or FeCl3.
How do you generate an electrophile in the chlorination and bromination of benzene?
Why does the reaction of benzene with Br2 or Cl2 require a catalyst when the reaction of an alkene with these reagents does not require a catalyst?
Benzene’s aromaticity makes is much more stable and, therefore, much less reactive than an alkene, so, benzene requires a better electrophile.
What is the mechanism for bromination of a benzene?
What is the mechanism for chlorination of a benzene?
What reagents are used for the iodination of benzene?
Hydrogen peroxide, H2O2 and H2SO4
What is the mechanism for iodination of a benzene?
What catalyst does benzene require for nitration?
H2SO4
What is the mechanism for the nitration of a benzene?
What is the mechanism for sulfonation of a benzene?
What is the mechanism for desulfonation of a benzene?
What is an acyl group?
What is the mechanism for Friedal-Crafts acylation of benzene?
Places an acyl group on a benzene ring.
What is the mechanism for Friedal-Crafts alkylation of a benzene ring?
Places an alkyl group on a benzene ring.
What is a 1,2-hydride shift?
A carbocation will rearrange if the rearrangement leads to a more stable carbocation.
What is a 1,2-methyl shift?
A carbocation will rearrange if the rearrangement leads to a more stable carbocation.
How can a straight chain alkyl group be added to a benzene?
- Friedal-Crafts acylation
- reduction of the carbonyl group to a methylene group.
What is a Wolff-Kishner reduction?
It converts the carbonyl group of a ketone to a methylene group. This method reduces all ketone carbonyl groups, not just those adjacent to benzene rings.
What is the mechanism for the Wolff-Kishner reduction?
Outside of the basic five substitution reactions for a benzene, name a few others and how they’re made.
- add a halogen to the benzylic position
- it can now be replaced by a nucleophile via an SN2 or SN1 reaction
Can a substituted benzene undergo an elimination reaction?
Yes.
How can you reduce a substituted benzene? (both the substitutions and the benzene itself)
Substitutions with double and triple bonds can be reduced via catalytic hydrogenation.
How can a substituted benzene be oxidized?
How can a nitro substituent be reduced to an amino substituent?