Carbocations Cyclohexadienyl cations

The carbocation formed m this step is a cyclohexadienyl cation Other commonly used terms include arenium ion and a complex It is an allylic carbocation and is stabilized by electron delocalization which can be represented by resonance... 

One way to assess the relative stabilities of these various intermediates is to exam me electron delocalization m them using a resonance description The cyclohexadienyl cations leading to o and p mtrotoluene have tertiary carbocation character Each has a resonance form m which the positive charge resides on the carbon that bears the methyl group... 

Sections How substituents control rate and regioselectivity m electrophilic aro 12 10-12 14 matic substitution results from their effect on carbocation stability An electron releasing substituent stabilizes the cyclohexadienyl cation inter mediates corresponding to ortho and para attack more than meta... 

Arenium ion (Section 12 2) The carbocation intermediate formed by attack of an electrophile on an aromatic substrate in electrophilic aromatic substitution See cyclohexadienyl cation... 

By contrast, measurement of pATR = 4.7 for the Fe(CO)3-cooordinated cyclo-hexadienyl cation 44 (Scheme 26) indicates a 107-fold more favorable equilibrium constant for carbocation formation than for the uncoordinated cation.197 However, a more dramatic effect of coordination is to render nucleophilic reaction with water more favorable than loss of a proton. A pXa = 9 can be estimated by computing the energy differences between coordinated and uncoordinated benzene and coordinated cyclohexadiene. This compares with the value of —24.5 for the uncoordinated cyclohexadienyl cation. The large difference must reflect the unfavorable effect of Fe(CO)3 coordination on benzene, an effect analogous to that found by Mayr for Fe (CO)3 coordination on the tropylium ion.196 As expected, both the coordinated cyclohexadienyl and tropylium ions are highly stereoselective toward exo attack by water. 

The cyclohexadienyl cation intermediate leading to 4-chloro-l,3-dimethylbenzene is more stable and is formed faster than the intermediate leading to chlorobenzene because of its tertiary carbocation character. 

The carbocation then rearranges by a methyl shift, and the rearranged cyclohexadienyl cation loses a proton to form the isomeric product... 

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