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Concept
Electrophilic aromatic substitution
Summary
Electrophilic aromatic substitution is an organic reaction in which an atom that is attached to an aromatic system (usually hydrogen) is replaced by an electrophile. Some of the most important electrophilic aromatic substitutions are aromatic nitration, aromatic halogenation, aromatic sulfonation, and alkylation and acylation Friedel–Crafts reaction.
The most widely practised example of this reaction is the ethylation of benzene.
Approximately 24,700,000 tons were produced in 1999. (After dehydrogenation and polymerization, the commodity plastic polystyrene is produced.) In this process, acids are used as catalyst to generate the incipient carbocation. Many other electrophilic reactions of benzene are conducted, although on a much smaller scale; they are valuable routes to key intermediates. The nitration of benzene is achieved via the action of the nitronium ion as the electrophile. The sulfonation with fuming sulfuric acid gives benzenesulfonic acid. Aromatic halogenation with bromine, chlorine, or iodine gives the corresponding aryl halides. This reaction is typically catalyzed by the corresponding iron or aluminum trihalide.
The Friedel–Crafts reaction can be performed either as an acylation or as an alkylation. Often, aluminium trichloride is used, but almost any strong Lewis acid can be applied. For the acylation reaction a stoichiometric amount of aluminum trichloride is required.
The overall reaction mechanism, denoted by the Hughes–Ingold mechanistic symbol SEAr, begins with the aromatic ring attacking the electrophile E+ (2a). This step leads to the formation of a positively charged and delocalized cyclohexadienyl cation, also known as an arenium ion, Wheland intermediate, or arene σ-complex (2b). Many examples of this carbocation have been characterized, but under normal operating conditions these highly acidic species will donate the proton attached to the sp3 carbon to the solvent (or any other weak base) to reestablish aromaticity. The net result is the replacement of H by E in the aryl ring (3).
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