Question

Explain the mechanism of nitration of benzene?

Answer 1

Nitration benzene reacts with a mixture of concentrated nitric acid and concentrated sulphuric acid at 50°C to form nitrobenzene.

Mechanism: This involves the following steps.

Step 1: Generation of electrophile nitronium ion NO

HNO₃ + 2H₂SO₄ → NO₂⁺ + H₃O⁺ + 2HSO₄^–

Step 2: The electrophile NO₂⁺ attacks the benzene ring to form a carbocation which is resonance stabilized.

Step 3: Loss of a proton to give nitrobenzene. The proton is removed by HSO₄^– 

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