Question

Explain why haloarenes are much less reactive than haloalkanes towards nucleophilic substitution reaction.

Answer 1

Dear Student, Haloarenes are less reactive than haloalkanes because in haloarenes halogen is bonded to sp2 hybridized carbon and hence the lone pairs of halogen are involved in resonance. This makes carbon halogen bond with partial double bond character. All the above factors do not apply to haloalkanes. So, substitution of halogen is difficult in haloarenes. Regards