Question

Assertion: Acetanilide is less basic than aniline.

Reason: Acetylation of aniline results in decrease of electron density on nitrogen.

Answer 1

Assertion:

Acetanilide is less basic than aniline because lone pair of electron in the N−atom of acetanilide is in conjugation with the adjacent carbonyl group, resulting in decrease in the electron density of nitrogen.

And in the resonating structure of acetanilide, the negative charge on more electronegative oxygen atom is highly stabilized. So, it is less basic than aniline.

So, the assertion is correct.

Resonance in Acetanilide:


Reason:

Acetylation of aniline results in decrease of electron density on nitrogen, because lone pair of nitrogen is in conjugation with the carbonyl group.

Therefore reason is the correct statement and it explains the assertion.

Hence, both assertion and reason are correct and reason explains the assertion.

Therefore Option (D) is correct.