(2 August 2002, Kansas) Police said an

Olathe man was struck and killed by a train

after his vehicle broke down on Interstate
35. His attempts at repairing his car had
failed, and he had stepped away from the
busy freeway onto the railroad tracks to call
for help, when the train engineer spotted
him. The engineer said the man was
holding a cell phone to one ear, and
cupping his hand to the other ear to block
the noise of the train.

1
 Chapter 6.
Benzene and Aromaticity
 Aromatic Compounds
• Aromatic was used to described some fragrant compounds in
early 19th century
– Not correct: later they are grouped by chemical behavior
(unsaturated compounds that undergo substitution rather
than addition)
• Current: distinguished from aliphatic compounds by electronic
configuration

3
 Sources of Aromatic Hydrocarbons
• From high temperature distillation of coal tar
• Heating petroleum at high temperature and pressure over a
catalyst

4
 Naming Aromatic Compounds
• Many common names (toluene = methylbenzene; aniline =
aminobenzene)
• Monosubstituted benzenes systematic names as hydrocarbons
with –benzene
– C6H5Br = bromobenzene
– C6H5NO2 = nitrobenzene, and C6H5CH2CH2CH3 is
propylbenzene

5
Common Names

6
7
 The Phenyl Group

• When a benzene ring is a substituent, the term phenyl is used

(for C6H5)
– You may also see “Ph” or “” in place of “C6H5”
• “Benzyl” refers to “C6H5CH2”

8
 Disubstituted Benzenes

• Relative positions on a benzene ring

– ortho- (o) on adjacent carbons (1,2)
– meta- (m) separated by one carbon (1,3)
– para- (p) separated by two carbons (1,4)
• Describes reaction patterns (“occurs at the para position”)

9
 CH3 H3C CH3 CH3

CH3 H3C
ortho-Xylene meta-Xylene para-Xylene

10
 Naming Benzenes With More Than Two
Substituents
• Choose numbers to get lowest possible values
• List substituents alphabetically with hyphenated numbers
• Common names, such as “toluene” can serve as root name

11
 Structure and Stability of Benzene
• Benzene reacts with slowly with Br2 to give bromobenzene
(where Br replaces H)
• This is substitution rather than the rapid addition reaction
common to compounds with C=C, suggesting that in benzene
there is a higher barrier

12
 Benzene’s Unusual Structure
• All its C-C bonds are the same length: 139 pm — between
single (154 pm) and double (134 pm) bonds
• Electron density in all six C-C bonds is identical
• Structure is planar, hexagonal
• C–C–C bond angles 120°
• Each C is sp2 and has a p orbital perpendicular to the plane of
the six-membered ring

13
 Drawing Benzene and Its Derivatives
• The two benzene resonance forms can be represented by a
single structure with a circle in the center to indicate the
equivalence of the carbon–carbon bonds
• This does indicate the number of  electrons in the ring but
reminds us of the delocalized structure
• We shall use one of the resonance structures to represent
benzene for ease in keeping track of bonding changes in
reactions

14
Bond distances and Bond Angles of
Benzene

15
 15.4 Molecular Orbital Description of Benzene
• The 6 p-orbitals combine to give
– Three bonding orbitals with 6  electrons,
– Two nonbonding and two antibonding orbitals
• Orbitals with the same energy are degenerate

16
 Recall: Key Ideas on Benzene

• Unusually stable - heat of hydrogenation 150 kJ/mol less

negative than a cyclic triene
• Planar hexagon: bond angles are 120°, carbon–carbon bond
lengths 139 pm
• Undergoes substitution rather than electrophilic addition
• Resonance hybrid with structure between two line-bond
structures
• One more important factor is the number of electrons in the
cyclic orbital

17
 Aromaticity and the 4n + 2 Rule
• Huckel’s rule, based on calculations – a planar cyclic
molecule with alternating double and single bonds has
aromatic stability if it has 4n+ 2  electrons (n is 0,1,2,3,4)
• For n=1: 4n+2 = 6; benzene is stable and the electrons are
delocalized

18
 Compounds With 4n  Electrons Are Not
Aromatic (May be Antiaromatic)
• Planar, cyclic molecules with 4 n 
electrons are much less stable than
expected (anti-aromatic)
• They will distort out of plane and
behave like ordinary alkenes
• 4- and 8-electron compounds are not
delocalized (single and double bonds)
• Cyclobutadiene is so unstable that it cyclooctatetraene
dimerizes by a self-Diels-Alder
reaction at low termperature
• Cyclooctatetraene has four double
bonds, reacting with Br2, KMnO4, and
HCl as if it were four alkenes

19
 Aromatic Ions
• The 4n + 2 rule applies to ions as well as neutral species
• Both the cyclopentadienyl anion and the cycloheptatrienyl cation are
aromatic
• The key feature of both is that they contain 6  electrons in a ring of
continuous p orbitals

20
 Aromaticity of the Cyclopentadienyl Anion
• 1,3-Cyclopentadiene
contains conjugated
double bonds joined by a
CH2 that blocks
delocalization
• Removal of H+ at the CH2
produces a cyclic 6-
electron system, which is
stable
• Removal of H- or H•
generate nonaromatic 4
and 5 electron systems
• Relatively acidic (pKa =
16) because the anion is
stable 21
 Cycloheptatriene

• Cycloheptatriene has 3
conjugated double bonds
joined by a CH2
• Removal of “H-” leaves the
cation
• The cation has 6 electrons
and is aromatic

22
 15.7 Aromatic Heterocycles: Pyridine and
Pyrrole
• Heterocyclic compounds contain elements other than carbon
in a ring, such as N,S,O,P
• Aromatic compounds can have elements other than carbon
in the ring
• There are many heterocyclic aromatic compounds and many
are very common
• Cyclic compounds that contain only carbon are called
carbocycles (not homocycles)
• Nomenclature is specialized

23
Pyridine, Pyrrole, & Furan

24
 Pyridine
• A six-membered heterocycle with a nitrogen atom in its ring
  electron structure resembles benzene (6 electrons)
• The nitrogen lone pair electrons are not part of the aromatic
system (perpendicular orbital)
• Pyridine is a relatively weak base compared to normal
amines but protonation does not affect aromaticity

25
 Pyrrole
• A five-membered heterocycle with one nitrogen
  electron system similar to that of cyclopentadienyl anion
• Four sp2-hybridized carbons with 4 p orbitals perpendicular to the ring and 4 p
electrons
• Nitrogen atom is sp2-hybridized, and lone pair of electrons occupies a p orbital (6 
electrons)
• Since lone pair electrons are in the aromatic ring, protonation destroys aromaticity,
making pyrrole a very weak base

26
 15.9 Polycyclic Aromatic Compounds:
Naphthalene
• Aromatic compounds can have rings that share a set of carbon
atoms (fused rings)
• Compounds from fused benzene or aromatic heterocycle rings
are themselves aromatic

27
Reactions of Benzene

28
 Other Aromatic Substitutions
• The reaction with bromine involves a mechanism that is
similar to many other reactions of benzene with electrophiles
• The cationic intermediate was first proposed by G. W.
Wheland of the University of Chicago and is often called the
Wheland intermediate

George Willard Wheland

1907-1974

29
 Addition Intermediate in Bromination
• The addition of bromine occurs in two steps
• In the first step the  electrons act as a nucleophile toward Br2
(in a complex with FeBr3)
• This forms a cationic addition intermediate from benzene and a
bromine cation
• The intermediate is not aromatic and therefore high in energy
(see Figure 16.2)

30
 Aromatic Nitration
• The combination of nitric acid and sulfuric acid produces
NO2+ (nitronium ion)
• The reaction with benzene produces nitrobenzene

31
 Aromatic Sulfonation
• Substitution of H by SO3 (sulfonation)
• Reaction with a mixture of sulfuric acid and SO 3
• Reactive species is sulfur trioxide or its conjugate acid
• Reaction occurs via Wheland intermediate and is reversible

32
 Alkylation of Aromatic Rings: The Friedel–
Crafts Reaction

• Aromatic
substitution of a
R+ for H
• Aluminum
chloride
promotes the
formation of the
carbocation

33
 Fiedel-Crafts Acylation

• Reaction of an acid chloride (RCOCl) and an aromatic ring in

the presence of AlCl3 introduces acyl group, COR
– Benzene with acetyl chloride yields acetophenone

34
 Mechanism of Friedel-Crafts Acylation
• Similar to alkylation
• Reactive electrophile: resonance-stabilized acyl cation
• An acyl cation does not rearrange

35
Reactions of Benzene

36
 Substituent Effects in Aromatic Rings
• Substituents can cause a compound to be (much) more or
(much) less reactive than benzene
• Substituents affect the orientation of the reaction – the
positional relationship is controlled
– ortho- and para-directing activators, ortho- and para-
directing deactivators, and meta-directing deactivators

37
Activators/
Deactivators

38