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15.5: Other Reactions of Aromatics

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    367993
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    Nitrosation of aromatic amines

    Aniline is a particularly important benzene derivative that can react with nitrous acid to produce a nitrosamine, followed by dehydration to give a diazonium salt. The reaction conditions are usually NaNO2/H2SO4.

    Screen Shot 2022-12-29 at 1.03.07 PM.png

    Diazonium salts are important synthetic intermediates because they are electrophilic – both at the aryl carbon atom and at the terminal nitrogen atom. For example, nucleophiles such as phenol react with diazonium salts to give deeply colored azo dyes.

    Screen Shot 2022-12-29 at 1.03.18 PM.png

    However, diazonium salts also have nucleophilic aromatic substitution reactivity that occurs at the aryl C-N bond.

    Screen Shot 2022-12-29 at 1.03.31 PM.png

    Some of these reactions have specific names:

    1. Schiemann reaction – good way to make aryl fluorides

    Screen Shot 2022-12-29 at 1.03.39 PM.png

    2. Sandmeyer reaction – good source of aryl chlorides, bromides, and nitriles

    Screen Shot 2022-12-29 at 1.03.46 PM.png

    Other reactions of benzene derivaties:

    Other reactions of aromatic rings that do not fit any category include:

    a) Clemmensen reduction – converts an aromatic ketone into an alkyl group

    Screen Shot 2022-12-29 at 1.03.57 PM.png

    b) Wolff-Kishner reduction – converts an aromatic ketone into an alkyl group

    Screen Shot 2022-12-29 at 1.04.01 PM.png

    c) Oxidation – oxidizes benzylic methyl groups into carboxylic acids or methylenes into ketones

    Screen Shot 2022-12-29 at 1.04.08 PM.png

    d) Birch reduction – reduces aromatic rings into 1,4-cyclohexadienes (electron-donating substituents will yield a product in which the substituent lies on a double bond, while an electron-withdrawing group will reduce so that the substituent is not directly attached to the double bond)

    Screen Shot 2022-12-29 at 1.04.16 PM.png

    e) Reduction of a nitro group – reduces nitro groups to anilines

    Screen Shot 2022-12-29 at 1.04.20 PM.png

    f) Acetylation of aniline – acetylated aniline will reduce the nucleophilicity of the aromatic ring so that reaction with an electrophile will only substitute once.

    Screen Shot 2022-12-29 at 1.04.29 PM.png


    15.5: Other Reactions of Aromatics is shared under a not declared license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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