Sunday, March 6, 2011

Electrophilic Substitution

This weeks goal was to find a peer review journal which shows a picture of an electrophilic substitution and why it is important in Organic Chemistry. After doing research on electrophilic substitution it can be defined as: a form of substitution reaction in which the leaving group (normally hydrogen) is replaced with an electrophile. It is important because it a way of introducing functional groups onto a benzene ring. There are two types of substitution one known as electrophilic aromatic substitution and electrophilic aliphatic substitution. Common aromatic substitution include: aromatic nitration, aromatic halogenation, aromatic sulfonation, and Friedel-Crafts, and common ones for aliphatic substitution include: nitrosation, ketone halogenation, and ketol-enol tautomerism,   A picture is shown below which shows electrophilic substitution:

This digram shows electrophilic aromatic substitution in which the final step is a decarboxylation rather than a deprotonation. This is due to the ketone carbonyl. 

References:
1. UC Davis ChemWiki. Section 15.5 Electrophilic aromatic substitution. 4 Feb. 2011. 6 March 2011.

1 comment:

  1. Very good post! I like how you included a picture. It gives me a better understanding of what's going on during the reaction. I tried to find a picture for mine, but had no such luck. This blog was particularly hard because the journals were so hard to locate, but you did an excellent job with it. Also, good job on listing your references. It's always important to be able to read the journal so I can read it and understand it. Great job on defining electrophilic aromatic substitution and stating it's reactions and defining electrophilic aliphatic substitution and it's reactions. Great job.

    ReplyDelete