Aromatic Reactions

AROMATIC REACTIONS

Figure 56.

The important thing to remember about aromatic reactions is that the six pi electrons really want to remain in the stable aromatic structure. It means that it is not practical to assume that there will be a simple addition reaction in which something like chlorine is added to the structure without substituting the chlorine atom with a hydrogen atom. This loses the aromatic nature of the structure. Figure 57 shows a reaction that just does not “prefer” to happen, while it also shows a preferred substitution reaction:

Figure 57.