Question

Which is the active nitrating agent during the nitration of benzene?

Answer 1

Nitration:

The method of reacting an organic compound with nitric acid or nitrate or in general a nitro group is called nitration.

Nitration of benzene:

• Nitration of benzene is a method of introducing the nitro group to a benzene ring.
• The nitrating mixture is a $1:1$ mixture of concentrated nitric acid with sulphuric acid.
• This mixture contains enough sulphuric acid to protonate nitric acid to form nitronium ions $\left({{\mathrm{NO}}_2}^{+}\right)$ as electrophiles.
• This ion is formed by removing water from nitric acid. Water can be removed from nitric acid by adding a proton to nitric acid.

${\mathrm{HNO}}_3+{\mathrm{H}}_2{\mathrm{SO}}_4\stackrel{}{\to }{{\mathrm{HSO}}_4}^{-}+{{\mathrm{NO}}_2}^{+}+\hspace{0.17em}{\mathrm{H}}_2\mathrm{O}$

During the nitration of benzene, the active nitrating agent is the nitronium ions,$\left({{\mathrm{NO}}_2}^{+}\right)$ .