Friedel-Crafts

Today was the final day of new material and it ended with a bang -- the Friedel-Crafts alkylation and acylation reactions. These reactions involve the formation of C-C bond during EAS reactions. The carbon is made electrophilic by the reaction between an alkyl or acyl halide and a trihalo aluminum compound. The acylation is a better reaction (generally) than the alkylation because the resultant C+ is stabilized by resonance.

Lots of problem sets/keys/unkeyed exams are posted to the left.

More EAS

The topic for yesterday was how to handle an EAS reaction when there are multiple substituents on the ring. Essentially, it boiled down to this -- look at the directing effects of each substituent and determine the regiochemistry predicted by each. If they agree, life is good. If they disagree, then use the substituent that is more donating as the one that dominates the regiochemical outcome.

We also saw the synthesis of TNT. On paper, it's easy. In real life, it requires forcing conditions and nasty nitro group sources.