Aluminum chloride reaction with benzene

Linear alkylbenzenes are made from -paraffms (Cio-Cu) by either partial dehydrogenation to olefins and addition to benzene with HF as catalyst (60%) or chlorination of the paraffins and Friedel-Crafts reaction with benzene and an aluminum chloride catalyst (40%). See Chapter 24 for more information. 

Exercise 22-14 Aluminum chloride is a much more powerful catalyst than ferric bromide for bromination of benzene. Would you expect the combination of aluminum chloride and bromine to give much chlorobenzene in reaction with benzene Explain. 

Ethylbenzene was the first petrochemical to be produced by petroleum refiners in large quantities. It is made by the alkylation of benzene by ethylene. Aluminum chloride promoted with ethyl chloride was originally the predominant catalyst used for the reaction, but solid phosphoric acid has been used more recently and is becoming more popular. Some of the newer fluoride-type catalysts are expected to become quite popular. 

Aluminum chloride coordinates with 1-chloropropane to give a Lewis acid/Lewis base complex, which can be attacked by benzene to yield propylbenzene or can undergo an intramolecular hydride shift to produce isopropyl cation. Isopropylbenzene arises by reaction of isopropyl cation with... 

Under acidic conditions, the alkylation and dealkylation of aromatic compounds are reversible reactions involving several steps in which n- and CT-complexes are formed. However, dealkylation proceeds only under more drastic conditions compared with alkylation. Nevertheless, this is not always the case. For example, if the aromatic compound is of the DPM type, the dealkylation may proceed under mild conditions since the cations formed (Fig. 6.6.5) are resonance-stabilized. This statement is supported by the fact that DPM derivatives may be degraded even at room temperature by aluminum chloride to yield benzene, alkylbenzene, and alkyldiphenylmethane, together with some resinous substances (Tsuge and Tashiro 1962, 1965). 

Diketones have been prepared by the Friedel-Crafts method. Both acyl chloride groups in adipyl chloride react with benzene in the presence of aluminum chloride to form the diketo compound, 1,4-dibenzoylbutane (81%). When diketene is treated with benzene under the conditions of the Friedel-Crafts reaction, benzoylacetone, COCHjCOCH, is formed... 

Tellurium tetrachloride and phenols condense at elevated temperatures to form triaryl telluronium chlorides . The reaction with benzene in refluxing benzene required the presence of aluminum trichloride. ... 

C13H10O, Mt 182.22, bp(,3 kPa 200.5 °C, d50 1.976, has been identified as a flavor component of grapes. It is a colorless, crystalline solid (mp 48.1 °C) with a rosy, slightly geranium-like odor. It can be prepared in several ways, for example, by Friedel-Crafts reaction of benzene and benzoyl chloride with aluminum chloride, or of benzene and carbon tetrachloride, and subsequent hydrolysis of the resulting a,a-dichlorodiphenylmethane. Benzophenone can also be prepared by oxidation of diphenylmethane. It is used in flower compositions and as a fixative. 

To probe this question, diatomic bromine is mixed with aluminum chloride (AlClg), a Lewis acid-Lewis base reaction forms the complex Br+AlClgBr as the product before there is any reaction with benzene. This cationic bromine atom is so reactive, however, that even a weak base like benzene will react. Benzene donates two electrons to Br to form a new C-Br bond, which disrupts the aromatic system of benzene and forms a carbocation, 40. 

PROBLEM 14.9 The synthesis of toluene by the aluminum chloride-catalyzed Friedel-Crafts alkylation of benzene with methyl chloride is badly complicated by the formation of di-, tri-, and polymethylated benzenes. It appears that the initial product of the reaction, toluene, is more reactive in the Friedel-Crafts reaction than is benzene. Analyze the mechanism of electrophilic aromatic substitution to see why toluene is more reactive than benzene. Hint. Look carefully at substitution in the position directly across the ring from the methyl group (the para position) for toluene, and look for differences from the reaction with benzene. 

Wenzel reported the formation of mesitylaldehyde on the addition of chloromethylene dibenzoate and anhydrous aluminum chloride to a benzene solution of mesitylene followed by a hydrolytic work-up (Eq 1.14). Anisole reacts in a similar manner with chloromethylene dibenzoate to give anisaldehyde (80% yield) while reaction with benzene produces only diphenylcarbinol benzoate... 

Alkylation of benzene with alkyl halides m the presence of aluminum chloride was discovered by Charles Friedel and James M Crafts m 1877 Crafts who later became president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology collaborated with Friedel at the Sorbonne m Pans and together they developed what we now call the Friedel-Crafts reaction into one of the most useful synthetic methods m organic chemistry... 

Alkenyl halides such as vinyl chloride (H2C=CHC1) do not form carbocations on treatment with aluminum chloride and so cannot be used m Friedel-Crafts reactions Thus the industrial preparation of styrene from benzene and ethylene does not involve vinyl chloride but proceeds by way of ethylbenzene... 

Partial rate factors may be used to estimate product distributions in disubstituted benzene derivatives The reactivity of a particular position in o bromotoluene for example is given by the product of the partial rate factors for the corresponding position in toluene and bromobenzene On the basis of the partial rate factor data given here for Fnedel-Crafts acylation predict the major product of the reaction of o bromotoluene with acetyl chlonde and aluminum chloride... 

Acetophenone. Acetophenone [98-86-2] (methyl phenyl ketone) is a colorless Hquid that forms laminar crystals at low temperature (mp 20°C). It has a characteristic sweet orange blossom odor, and is soluble in alcohols and ethers. It is found in nature in oil of casatoreum, obtained from beavers oil of labdanum, recovered from plants and in buds of balsam poplar. It can be prepared by the Friedel-Crafts reaction (qv) of acetyl chloride with benzene in the presence of aluminum chloride however, this route is of Htde commercial significance. 

Propiophenone. Propiophenone [93-55-0] (ethyl phenyl ketone) is a colorless Hquid with a flowery odor. It can be prepared by the Friedel-Crafts reaction of benzene and propionyl chloride in the presence of aluminum chloride (346), or by the catalytic reaction of benzoic acid and propionic acid in the presence of water (347). Propiophenone is commercially available (348), and is sold in Japan at 2700 Y/kg (349). It is used in the production of ephedrine, as a fragrance enhancer, and as a polymerization sensitizer. 

Physical Properties. Nitrobenzene is readily soluble in most organic solvents and is completely miscible with diethyl ether and benzene. Nitrobenzene is only slightly soluble in water with a solubiUty of 0.19 parts pet 100 parts of water at 20°C and 0.8 pph at 80°C. Nitrobenzene is a good organic solvent. For example, it is used in Friedel-Crafts reactions because aluminum chloride is soluble in nitrobenzene. The physical properties of nitrobenzene are summarized in Table 1. 

Friedel-Grafts Reaction. Until quite recently, the manufacture of anthraquiaone ia the United States was by the Friedel-Crafts reaction benzene [71-43-2] and phthaUc anhydride [85-44-9] condense ia the preseace of anhydrous aluminum chloride to give o-benzoylbenzoic acid [85-52-9] which, on treatment with concentrated sulfuric acid, is converted iato anthraquiaoae ia high yields and purity (33). 

Reactions other than those of the nucleophilic reactivity of alkyl sulfates iavolve reactions with hydrocarbons, thermal degradation, sulfonation, halogenation of the alkyl groups, and reduction of the sulfate groups. Aromatic hydrocarbons, eg, benzene and naphthalene, react with alkyl sulfates when cataly2ed by aluminum chloride to give Fhedel-Crafts-type alkylation product mixtures (59). Isobutane is readily alkylated by a dipropyl sulfate mixture from the reaction of propylene ia propane with sulfuric acid (60). 

Friedel-Crafts Acylation. The Friedel-Crafts acylation procedure is the most important method for preparing aromatic ketones and thein derivatives. Acetyl chloride (acetic anhydride) reacts with benzene ia the presence of aluminum chloride or acid catalysts to produce acetophenone [98-86-2], CgHgO (1-phenylethanone). Benzene can also be condensed with dicarboxyHc acid anhydrides to yield benzoyl derivatives of carboxyHc acids. These benzoyl derivatives are often used for constmcting polycycHc molecules (Haworth reaction). For example, benzene reacts with succinic anhydride ia the presence of aluminum chloride to produce P-benzoylpropionic acid [2051-95-8] which is converted iato a-tetralone [529-34-0] (30). 

Cumene as a pure chemical intermediate is produced in modified Friedel-Crafts reaction processes that use acidic catalysts to alkylate benzene with propylene (see Alkylation Friedel-CRAFTSreactions). The majority of cumene is manufactured with a soHd phosphoric acid catalyst (7). The remainder is made with aluminum chloride catalyst (8). 

In a 3-I. round-bottomed, three-necked flask fltted with a liquid-sealed mechanical stirrer, a thermometer, and a 500-cc. separatory funnel are placed 1700 cc. of dry ben2ene and 160 g. (1.2 moles) of powdered, anhydrous aluminum chloride (Note i). The mixture is cooled to 10° by means of an ice-water bath and maintained at 10-20 during the addition of a solution of 120 g. (0.58 mole) of benzalacetophenone (Note 2) (Org. Syn. Coll. Vol. I, 71) in 300 cc. of dry benzene. This addition requires about thirty minutes. The cooling bath is then removed and stirring continued at room temperature until all the dense, yellow precipitate formed at first has gone into solution (Note 3). The reaction is complete after stirring for an additional hour. 

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