Having gone through the mechanism of electrophilic aromatic substitution, explored activating and deactivating substituents, and seen the importance of directing groups, let's now take the opportunity to use these concepts to answer some slightly thornier questions. For instance: What happens … [Read more...]
Why are halogens ortho- para- directors?
The previous post in this series tried to show that the key to understanding why a substituent is an ortho-, para- director or meta- director lies in understanding how it influences the stability of the ortho-, para- and meta- carbocation intermediates. In ortho- and para- addition, there's a … [Read more...]
Understanding Ortho, Para, and Meta Directors
In the previous post we introduced ortho- ,para- and meta- directors in electrophilic aromatic substitution. Previous to that we covered the mechanism of electrophilic aromatic substitution, and showed that the mechanism proceeds through a carbocation intermediate. Today, we're going to tie … [Read more...]
Ortho-, Para- and Meta- Directors in Electrophilic Aromatic Substitution
Two Important Reaction Patterns: Ortho- , Para- and Meta- Directors It's one thing to learn about electrophilic aromatic substitution reactions of benzene itself. But once you move beyond benzene, that's when things start getting really interesting. Here's a fascinating observation. Start … [Read more...]