Addition Reactions involving Aromatic Rings

Benzene rings do not readily undergo eleetrophilic addition reactions, presumably because the loss of resonance makes these reaetions unfavorable. 

Polyeyelie aromatic hydrocarbons, however, might undergo selective addition reactions if the change in resonance energy is small. 

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This addition to the aromatic ring is believed to be eoncerted, since the relative geometry of the substituents on the alkene is retained in the product. Lesser amounts of products involving addition to 1,2- or 1,4-positions of the aromatic ring are also formed in such photolyses. ° This type of addition reaction has also been realized intramolecularly when the distance between the alkene and the phenyl substituent is sufficient to permit interaction. 

In contrast with aliphatic nucleophilic substitution, nucleophilic displacement reactions on aromatic rings are relatively slow and require activation at the point of attack by electron-withdrawing substituents or heteroatoms, in the case of heteroaromatic systems. With non-activated aromatic systems, the reaction generally involves an elimination-addition mechanism. The addition of phase-transfer catalysts generally enhances the rate of these reactions. 

A second major mode of photocydoaddition involves 1.2-addition to the aromatic ring, and this predominates if there is a large difference in electron-donor/acceptor capacity between the aromatic compound and the alkene. It is therefore the major reaction pathway when benzene reacts with an electron-rich alkene such as 1,1-dimethoxyethylene (3.43) or with an electron-deficient alkene such as acrylonitrile (3.441. When substituted benzenes are involved, such as anisole with acrylonitrile (3.45), or benzonitrile with vinyl acetate (3.46), reaction can be quite efficient and regioselective to give products in which the two substituents are on adjacent carbon atoms. 

The reaction of an aromatic ring such as benzene with an alkene under acid conditions results in the formation of an arylalkane (Following fig.). As far as the alkene is concerned this is another example of electrophilic addition involving the addition of a proton to one end of the double bond and the addition of the aromatic ring to the other. As far as the aromatic ring is concerned this is an example of an electrophilic substitution reaction called the Friedel-Cra fts alkylation. 

Addition Reactions Section B of Table 11.3 gives some rates of addition reactions involving carbon-carbon double bonds and aromatic rings. Comparison of Entries 23 and 24 shows that the phenyl radical is much more reactive toward addition to alkenes than the benzyl radical. Comparison of Entries 26 and 27 shows the same effect on additions to an aromatic ring. Delocalized benzyl and cumyl radicals have somewhat reduced reactivity. Additions to aromatic rings are much slower than additions to alkenes (compare Entries 23 and 27). This kinetic relationship shows that it is more difficult to disrupt an aromatic ring than an alkene tt bond. 

The aromatic-OH radical reaction proceeds via two pathways (a) a minor one (of order 10%) involving H-atom abstraction from C—H bonds of, for benzene, the aromatic ring, or for alkyl-substituted aromatic hydrocarbons, the alkyl-substituent groups and (b) a major reaction pathway (of order 90%) involving OH radical addition to the aromatic ring. For example, for toluene these reaction pathways are ... 

The use and importance of aromatic compounds in fuels sharply contrasts the limited kinetic data available in the literature, regarding their combustion kinetics and reaction pathways. A number of experimental and modelling studies on benzene [153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158], toluene [159, 160] and phenol [161] oxidation exist in the literature, but it would still be helpful to have more data on initial product and species concentration profiles to understand or evaluate important reaction paths and to validate detailed mechanisms. The above studies show that phenyl and phenoxy radicals are key intermediates in the gas phase thermal oxidation of aromatics. The formation of the phenyl radical usually involves abstraction of a strong (111 to 114 kcal mof ) aromatic—H bond by the radical pool. These abstraction reactions are often endothermic and usually involve a 6 - 8 kcal mol barrier above the endothermicity but they still occur readily under moderate or high temperature combustion or pyrolysis conditions. The phenoxy radical in aromatic oxidation can result from an exothermic process involving several steps, (i) formation of phenol by OH addition to the aromatic ring with subsequent H or R elimination from the addition site [162] (ii) the phenoxy radical is then easily formed via abstraction of the weak (ca. 86 kcal moT ) phenolic hydrogen atom. 

The mechanism of these reactions involves the rapid and reversible addition of a proton to the aromatic ring, followed by 1,2-intramolecular methyl shifts (10) ... 

Poly(phenylene oxide)s undergo many substitution reactions (25). Reactions involving the aromatic rings and the methyl groups of DMPPO include bromination (26), displacement of the resultant bromine with phosphoms or amines (27), lithiation (28), and maleic anhydride grafting (29). Additional reactions at the open 3-position on the ring include nitration, alkylation (30), and amidation with isocyanates (31). 

Toluene, an aLkylben2ene, has the chemistry typical of each example of this type of compound. However, the typical aromatic ring or alkene reactions are affected by the presence of the other group as a substituent. Except for hydrogenation and oxidation, the most important reactions involve either electrophilic substitution in the aromatic ring or free-radical substitution on the methyl group. Addition reactions to the double bonds of the ring and disproportionation of two toluene molecules to yield one molecule of benzene and one molecule of xylene also occur. 

Many variations of the reaction can be carried out, including halogenation, nitration, and sulfonation. Friedel-Crafts alkylation and acylation reactions, which involve reaction of an aromatic ling with carbocation electrophiles, are particularly useful. They are limited, however, by the fact that the aromatic ring must be at least as reactive as a halobenzene. In addition, polyalkylation and carbocation rearrangements often occur in Friedel-Crafts alkylation. 

Other radical reactions not covered in this chapter are mentioned in the chapters that follow. These include additions to systems other than carbon-carbon double bonds [e.g. additions to aromatic systems (Section 3.4.2.2.1) and strained ring systems (Section 4.4.2)], transfer of heteroatoms [eg. chain transfer to disulfides (Section 6.2.2.2) and halocarbons (Section 6.2.2.4)] or groups of atoms [eg. in RAFT polymerization (Section 9.5.3)], and radical-radical reactions involving heteroatom-centered radicals or metal complexes [e g. in inhibition (Sections 3.5.2 and 5.3), NMP (Section 9.3.6) and ATRP (Section 9.4)]. 

Direct nucleophilic displacement of halide and sulfonate groups from aromatic rings is difficult, although the reaction can be useful in specific cases. These reactions can occur by either addition-elimination (Section 11.2.2) or elimination-addition (Section 11.2.3). Recently, there has been rapid development of metal ion catalysis, and old methods involving copper salts have been greatly improved. Palladium catalysts for nucleophilic substitutions have been developed and have led to better procedures. These reactions are discussed in Section 11.3. 

Aromatic rings are moderately reactive toward addition of free radicals (see Part A, Section 12.2) and certain synthetically useful substitution reactions involve free radical substitution. One example is the synthesis of biaryls.175... 

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