17: Aromatic Compounds

learning objectives

After reading this chapter and completing ALL the exercises, a student can be able to

• summarize the discovery of the structure of benzene (refer to section 17.1)
• predict the physical properties of aromatic compounds using IMFs (refer to section 17.2)
• apply resonance and MO Theory to the structure of benzene (refer to section 17.3)
• apply MO Theory to cyclobutadiene (refer to section 17.4)
• apply resonance to aromatic compounds and ions (refer to sections 17.5 and 17.6)
• use Hückel’s rule to predict whether a given cyclic compound or ion is aromatic, antiaromatic or nonaromatic (refer to sections 17.5 and 17.6)
• for heterocycles, determine whether the lone pairs of the heteroatoms occupy p orbitals or sp² orbitals (refer to sections 17.5 and 17.7)
• for heterocyclic amines, and predict whether the nitrogen atom is weakly or strongly basic (refer to sections 17.5 and 17.7)
• use Huckel's Rule to prdict whether polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are aromatic (refer to setions 17.5 and 17.8)
• use IR, NMR, UV and mass spectra to determine the structures of aromatic compounds (refer to section 17.9)
• given an aromatic compound, predict the important features of its spectra (refer to section 17.9)

Please note: IUPAC nomenclature and important common names of alcohols were explained in Chapter 3.