3.4.6 Aromatic Chemistry - Electrophilic substitution
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Electrophilic substitution
Benzene rings are electron rich due to the delocalised ring of electrons. They attract electrophiles, but the ring system woul dlose stability if it were to use these electrons for bonding purposes.
What happens instead is that the electrophiles attach to the ring using the delocalised electrons temporarily and the delocalised system is regenerated by the loss of a hydrogen atom.
The overal result is substitution of the hydrogen by an electrophile.
