Substituent effects benzene ring

Effect of Substituents on Benzene Ring and Benzylic Carbon... 

Figure 18.7 summarizes the reactivity and directing effects of the common substituents on benzene rings. Do not memorize this list. Instead, follow the general procedure outlined in Sections 18.9A-C to predict particular substituent effects. 

When a benzene ring bears two or more substituents both its reactivity and the site of further substitution can usually be predicted from the cumulative effects of its substituents In the simplest cases all the available sites are equivalent and substitution at any one of them gives the same product... 

Ultraviolet. Benzene has a series of relatively low intensity absorption bands in the region of 230 to 270 nm. When there is a substituent on the ring with nonbonding electrons, such as an amino group, there is a pronounced increase in the intensity of these bands and a shift to longer wavelength. Aniline shows an absorption band at 230 nm (e = 8600) and a secondary band at 280 nm (e = 1430). Protonation of the amino groups reduces these effects and the spectmm resembles that of the unsubstituted benzene. 

If the reactions of the same substituents on heteroaromatic azoles and on benzene rings are compared, the differences in the reactivities are a measure of the heteroatoms influence. Such influence by the mesomeric effect is smaller when the substituent is /3 to a heteroatom than when it is a or y. The influence by the inductive effect is largest when the substituent is a to a heteroatom. 

The electronic environment of an a-substituent on pyridine (319) approaches that of a substituent on the corresponding imino compound (320) and is intermediate between those of substituents on benzene and substituents attached to carbonyl groups (321, 322) (cf. discussion in Chapter 2.02). Substituents attached to certain positions in azole rings show similar properties to those of a- and y-substituents on pyridine. However, the azoles also possess one heteroatom which behaves as an electron source and which tends to oppose the effect of other heteroatom(s). 

Substituents cannot directly conjugate with /3-pyridine-like nitrogen atoms. Azole substituents which are not a or y to a pyridine-like nitrogen react as they would on a benzene ring. Conjugation with an a-pyridine-like nitrogen is much more effective across a formal double bond thus the 5-methyl group in 3,5-dimethyl-l,2,4-oxadiazole (323) is by far the more reactive. 

However, other studies on the nitration of a series of 3-methyl- and 3-ethyl-1,2-benzisoxazoles have shown that a mixture of the 5-nitro and 5,7-dinitro derivatives is formed (77IJC(B)1058, 77IJC(B)1061). The effect of substituents in the benzene ring is also of interest. If the 5-position is blocked, e.g. by a chloro group or by alkyl groups, nitration then occurs at the 4-position. 3-Alkyl-7-chloro and 3,7-dialkyl derivatives result in the formation of the appropriate 5-nitro derivative. The isomeric 3-alkyl-6-chloro- and 3,6-dialkyl-1,2-benzisoxazoles yield a mixture of the 5-nitro and 5,7-dinitro compounds. Both H NMR measurements and alternate syntheses were used in establishing the structures of these substitution products. 

Both 1,2- and 2,1-benzisothiazoles react with electrophiles to give 5- and 7-substituted products (see Section 4.02.3.2). The isothiazole ring has little effect on the normal characteristics of the benzene ring. C-Linked substituents react almost wholly normally, the isothiazole ring having little effect except that phenyl substituents are deactivated (see Section 4.17.2.1). There are, however, considerable differences in the ease of decarboxylation of the carboxylic acids, the 4-isomer being the most stable (see Section 4.02.3.3). 

The reversed polarity of the double bond is induced by a n electron-accepting substituent A (A = C=0, C=N, NO2) the carbon and proton in the p-position are deshielded (-A/effect, larger shifts). These substituents have analogous effects on the C atoms of aromatic and heteroaromatic rings. An electron donor D (see above) attached to the benzene ring deshields the (substituted) a-C atom (-/ effect). In contrast, in the ortho and para positions (or comparable positions in heteroaromatic rings) it causes a shielding +M effect, smaller H and C shifts), whereas the meta positions remain almost unaffected. 

A choice can be made between these two with the help of published C substituent effects for the substituents (-NH2, -NH3, -COOR see Section 2.5.4) on the benzene ring in A and B ... 

Adding these substituent effects gives the following calculated shift values (as compared with the observed values in parentheses) for C-1 to C-4 of the pura-disubstituted benzene ring in A and B ... 

Substituent effects calculated for structure B lead to values which are not perfect but which agree more closely than for A with the measured C shifts of the benzene ring carbon atoms. The dia-stereotopism of the NC//2 protons in the H NMR spectrum also points to B as the Newman projection C along the C/fj-ammonium-N bond shows ... 

First the five protons (integral) of the //NMR spectrum (Sfj = 7.50 - 7.94) in the chemical shift range appropriate for aromatics indicate a monosubstituted benzene ring with typical coupling constants 8.0 Hz for ortho protons, 1.5 Hz for meta protons.). The chemical shift values especially for the protons which are positioned ortho to the substituent Sn = 7.94) reflect a -M effect. Using the CH COLOC plot it can be established from the correlation signal hclS = 66.AI7.94 that it is a benzoyl group A. 

The Hammett equation in the form of Eq. (4.14) or Eq. (4.15) is free of complications due to steric effects, since it is applied only to meta and para substituents. The geometry of the benzene ring ensures that groups in these positions cannot interact stoically with the site of reaction. Tables of a values for many substituents have been collected some values are given in Table 4.5, but substituent constants are available for a much wider range of... 

Nevertheless, many free-radical processes respond to introduction of polar substituents, just as do heterolytic processes that involve polar or ionic intermediates. The substituent effects on toluene bromination, for example, are correlated by the Hammett equation, which gives a p value of — 1.4, indicating that the benzene ring acts as an electron donor in the transition state. Other radicals, for example the t-butyl radical, show a positive p for hydrogen abstraction reactions involving toluene. ... 

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