Bromine reaction with benzene

Chlorination is cariied out in a manner similar- to bromination and provides a ready route to chlorobenzene and related ar-yl chlorides. Fluorination and iodination of benzene and other arenes are rarely perfor-med. Fluorine is so reactive that its reaction with benzene is difficult to control. Iodination is very slow and has an unfavorable equilibrium constant. Syntheses of aryl fluorides and aryl iodides are nor-mally cariied out by way of functional group transformations of arylffluines these reactions will be described in Chapter 22. 

Iodine acetate would seem to be unambiguously present in the iodination of pentamethylbenzene in acetic acid by iodine and mercuric acetate, since the latter components form an equilibrium mixture of iodine acetate and acetoxy-mercuric iodide and mercuric acetate speeds up the iodination332. Second-order rate coefficients of 0.078 (25 °C) and 0.299 (45 °C) were obtained, and these values are intermediate between those obtained for the reaction of bromine acetate with benzene (2.5 xlO-3) and toluene (1.2) at 25 °C, indicating that bromine acetate is the stronger electrophile. 

Cyanide and thiocyanate anions in aqueous solution can be determined as cyanogen bromide after reaction with bromine [686]. The thiocyanate anion can be quantitatively determined in the presence of cyanide by adding an excess of formaldehyde solution to the sample, which converts the cyanide ion to the unreactive cyanohydrin. The detection limits for the cyanide and thiocyanate anions were less than 0.01 ppm with an electron-capture detector. Iodine in acid solution reacts with acetone to form monoiodoacetone, which can be detected at high sensitivity with an electron-capture detector [687]. The reaction is specific for iodine, iodide being determined after oxidation with iodate. The nitrate anion can be determined in aqueous solution after conversion to nitrobenzene by reaction with benzene in the presence of sulfuric acid [688,689]. The detection limit for the nitrate anion was less than 0.1 ppm. The nitrite anion can be determined after oxidation to nitrate with potassium permanganate. Nitrite can be determined directly by alkylation with an alkaline solution of pentafluorobenzyl bromide [690]. The yield of derivative was about 80t.with a detection limit of 0.46 ng in 0.1 ml of aqueous sample. Pentafluorobenzyl p-toluenesulfonate has been used to derivatize carboxylate and phenolate anions and to simultaneously derivatize bromide, iodide, cyanide, thiocyanate, nitrite, nitrate and sulfide in a two-phase system using tetrapentylammonium cWoride as a phase transfer catalyst [691]. Detection limits wer Hi the ppm range. 

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. 

Bromine reacts with benzene in a substitution reaction (a bromine atom replaces a hydrogen atom), keeping the benzene structure intact. This ability to retain its ring structure through all sorts of chemical reactions is one of the important differences of benzene compared to alkenes and one that originally helped to define the class of aromatic compounds to which benzene belongs. 

Whether fluorine can activate or deactivate an aromatic ring relative to hydrogen depends on the nature of the attacking electrophile. When the reagent is less reactive (late transition state) such as in molecular chlorinations and brominations [42, 43] (Table 4.6), resonance stabilisation of the Wheland-like transition state becomes far more important and so fluorine activates the system. On the other hand, nitration of fluoro-benzene is slower than the corresponding reaction with benzene. 

Bromine reacts with benzene in the presence of aluminium tribromide to give bromobenzene and hydrogen bromide. Suggest at least two plausible mechanisms for this reaction. Hint Aluminium tribromide and bromine form a complex which can be regarded as [Br] + [AlBr4]. ... 

The intermediate in both reactions is a cation but the first (from cyclohexene) adds an anion while the second (from benzene) loses a proton so that the aromatic system can be restored. Notice also that neutral bromine reacts with the alkene but the cationic AICI3 complex is needed to get reaction with benzene. Bromine itself is a very reactive electrophile. It is indeed a dangerous compound and should be handled only with special precautions. Even so it does not react with benzene. It is difficult to get benzene to react with anything. 

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. 

Let us illustrate this with the example of the bromination of monosubstituted benzene derivatives. Observations on the product distributions and relative reaction rates compared with unsubstituted benzene led chemists to conceive the notion of inductive and resonance effects that made it possible to explain" the experimental observations. On an even more quantitative basis, linear free energy relationships of the form of the Hammett equation allowed the estimation of relative rates. It has to be emphasized that inductive and resonance effects were conceived, not from theoretical calculations, but as constructs to order observations. The explanation" is built on analogy, not on any theoretical method. 

Chlorine and bromine add to benzene in the absence of oxygen and presence of light to yield hexachloro- [27154-44-5] and hexabromocyclohexane [30105-41-0] CgHgBr. Technical benzene hexachloride is produced by either batch or continuous methods at 15—25°C in glass reactors. Five stereoisomers are produced in the reaction and these are separated by fractional crystallization. The gamma isomer (BHC), which composes 12—14% of the reaction product, was formerly used as an insecticide. Benzene hexachloride [608-73-17, C HgCl, is converted into hexachlorobenzene [118-74-17, C Clg, upon reaction with ferric chloride in chlorobenzene solution. 

A second difference between alkene addition and aromatic substitution occurs after the carbocation intermediate has formed. Instead of adding Br- to give an addition product, the carbocation intermediate loses H+ from the bromine-bearing carbon to give a substitution product. Note that this loss of H+ is similar to what occurs in the second step of an El reaction (Section 11.10). The net effect of reaction of Br2 with benzene is the substitution of H+ by Br+ by the overall mechanism shown in Figure 16.2. 

Arenes are unsaturated but, unlike the alkenes, they are not very reactive. Whereas alkenes commonly take part in addition reactions, arenes undergo predominantly substitution reactions, with the TT-bonds of the ring left intact. For example, bromine immediately adds to a double bond of an alkene but reacts with benzene only in the presence of a catalyst—typically, iron(III) bromide—and it does not affect the bonding in the ring. Instead, one of the bromine atoms replaces a hydrogen atom to give bromobenzene, C H Br ... 

The other bromine atom comes from another bromine-containing molecule or ion. This is clearly not a problem in reactions with benzylic species since the benzene ring is not prone to such addition reactions. If the concentration is sufficiently low, there is a low probability that the proper species will be in the vicinity once the intermediate forms. The intermediate in either case reverts to the initial species and the allylic substitution competes successfully. If this is true, it should be possible to brominate an alkene in the allylic position without competition from addition, even in the absence of NBS or a similar compound, if a very low concentration of bromine is used and if the HBr is removed as it is formed so that it is not available to complete the addition step. This has indeed been demonstrated. ... 

Phenylnaphthalene has been prepared by the reaction of a-halonaphthalenes with mercury diphenyl3 6 or with benzene in the presence of aluminum chloride,6 and by means of the Gri-gnard synthesis, starting with either bromobenzene, cyclohexyl chloride, and a-tetralone 7 or with a-bromonaphthalene and cyclohexanone.6 8 9 Dehydrogenation of the reduced naphthalene has been accomplished by the use of sulfur,6 bromine,8 platinum black, or selenium.7 The formation of the hydrocar-... 

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