Di- and poly-substituted derivatives of benzene

There have been many studies of the orientation of nitration in di- and poly-substituted derivatives of benzene, but in very few cases have 

The importance of a primary steric effect in the nitration of alkyl-benzenes has been mentioned ( 9.1.1). The idea was first introduced by Le Fevre to account for the fact that -alkyltoluenes (alkyl = Et, -Pr,68a t-Bu ) are nitrated mainly adjacent to the methyl group. Without the rate data reported for the alkylbenzenes the effect might equally well have been accounted for by hyperconjugation. 

The isomer proportions for the nitration of the chlorotoluenes, to be expected from the additivity principle, have been calculated from the partial rate factors for the nitration of toluene and chlorobenzene and compared with experimental results for nitration with nitric acid at o °C. The calculated values are indicated in brackets beside the experimental values on the following structural formulae. In general, it can be 

The same sort of situation is encountered in the nitration of the nitrotoluenes. The following diagrams record the observed partial rate 

Kinetic data are available for the nitration of a series of p-alkylphenyl trimethylammonium ions over a range of acidities in sulphuric acid. - The following table shows how p-methyl and p-tert-h xty augment the reactivity of the position ortho to them. Comparison with table 9.1 shows how very much more powerfully both the methyl and the tert-butyl group assist substitution into these strongly deactivated cations than they do at the o-positions in toluene and ferf-butylbenzene. Analysis of these results, and comparison with those for chlorination and bromination, shows that even in these highly deactivated cations, as in the nitration of alkylbenzenes ( 9.1.1), the alkyl groups still release electrons in the inductive order. In view of the comparisons just 

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We have seen above (p. 398) how three hi- and tri-substituted derivatives are derivable from benzene. Phenol is a nnisubsti-tuted derivative of the same substance and hence still contains, five H atoms which may be replaced by other elements or radicals, to produce di- or tri- or poly-substituted derivatives of benzene, which will be ortho, ineta or para, etc., according to the relations of the introduced groups to the OH, already existing in phenol, or to the CiJIsn+i and OH groups in its superior hoinologues. 

Isomerism.— As all of the second group, in which substitution occurs in the side chain, considered as benzene derivatives, are mono-substituted benzenes, they do not exist in isomeric forms, and only one compound of each formula is known. The first group, however, in which halogen substitution occurs in the ring, are all poly-substitution products of benzene, since toluene itself is a mono-substituted benzene. Mono-chlor toluene is, therefore, a di-substituted benzene, and occurs in the three forms, as follows ... 

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