Organic Chemistry Help: Electrophilic Aromatic Substitution

Hey Everybody, this is one of the tricks that organic chemistry profs always catch o-chem students on when doing EAS.  Put a group in the meta position, when there is an ortho,para director already on the ring.  For example:

 

 How do you put a methyl group in the meta position in this problem?  Here’s the trick:  Start with a meta director on your ring, place the methyl group in the meta position, then change that meta director into an amine. 

 A nitro group is the logical choice for the “meta-switcheroo”….keep it in mind next time you run into a problem  like this. 

As always, we think organic chemistry help is a great resource for all of you organic chemistry needs.

Dr. Mike Pali got a bachelors degree in chemistry from Binghamton University, a masters degree in organic chemistry from the University of Arizona and a Ph.D. in bio-organic chemistry from the University of Arizona. His research focus was on novel pain killers which were more potent than morphine but designed to have fewer side effects. There may even be a patent or two that came out of it. Prior to all of this, he was a chemist at Procter and Gamble. After all of that, he (briefly) worked as a post-doctoral assistant at Syracuse University, working on novel organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). In between, he did NOT compete at the 1996 Olympics, make the Atlanta Braves opening day roster, or become the head coach of the Indiana Pacers, as he had intended. #fail During this entire time, he always loved helping students, especially if they were struggling with organic chemistry. In 2006, Dr. Pali founded AceOrganicChem.com in order to make learning organic chemistry fast and easy. 14 years and about 60,000 students later we are still helping students to learn organic chemistry one reaction at a time at https://www.aceorganicchem.com

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