Electrophiles, reactions with high-nuclearity

Electrophiles, reactions with high-nuclearity carbonyl clusters, 30 165... 

Addition of either nucleophilic or electrophilic metallic species can result in the capping of triangular- or square-metal faces in carbonyl clusters. These redox reactions provide high yield syntheses of higher nuclearity clusters and somewhat resemble surface reconstruction on metals. With a few examples,... 

The PMBs, when treated with electrophilic reagents, show much higher reaction rates than the five lower molecular weight homologues (benzene, toluene, (9-, m- and -xylene), because the benzene nucleus is highly activated by the attached methyl groups (Table 2). The PMBs have reaction rates for electrophilic substitution ranging from 7.6 times faster (sulfonylation of durene) to ca 607,000 times faster (nuclear chlorination of durene) than benzene. With rare exception, the PMBs react faster than toluene and the three isomeric dimethylbenzenes (xylenes). 

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