Benzene Reaction Lab Report

Benzene, rings are very prevalent in many products that are used on a daily biases by humans, and compounds that contain benzene are often referred to as being aromatic. Benzene has characteristics that differ from many compounds causing it to react differently when mixed with certain compounds. Although benzene has three double bonds, it does not react like a normal alkene in terms of addition reactions. For example, when bromine reacts with a simple carbon-carbon double bond it forms dibromo. Benzene does not do this unless it is in the presence of a strong catalyst, making it no longer an addition reaction, but an electrophilic substitution (Structure of Benzene, 2001). An electrophilic substitution consist of the aromatic compound that undergoes a substitution, which is generally the replacement of a hydrogen ion, with an electrophilic compound, which is a compound that is electron poor (Hunt, 2015). A pair of electrons from one of the double bonds in the aromatic grabs on to the electrophile to form a carbocation, resonance occurs, and then a hydrogen is removed from the carbon that received the electrophile using a weak base to form a double bond, which was lost. When …show more content…
Then add an mixture of sulfuric acid and nitric acid drop wise to solution while on ice and continuously mixing, mixture is 2 mL sulfuric acid and 2 mL nitric acid. Continue to swirl mixture in ice for two minute and then let it sit out of the ice for 15 minutes. Once at room temperature pour solution into a beaker with 4g of crushed ice and allow product to solidify. Then separate product with Hirsch funnel and wash solid with cold water and cold methanol. Then weigh the crude product and recrystallize it with and equal amount of methanol and slowly cool to form pure crystals. Lastly, filter out product, weigh it, calculate percent yield, melting point and conduct a proton and carbon