The nitration of mono‐alkylbenzenes conformational analysis and steric hindrance: Part I: Primary alkylbenzenes

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

The partial rate factors for the nitration of seven primary alkylbenzenes have been determined. The activation entropy of the ortho‐substitution in neopentylbenzene is 2.9±1.7 e.u. smaller than that of the para‐substitution. The steric hindrance of the nitration in the ortho‐positions has been discussed by reference to the conformations of the initial states and the transition states. The increase of the steric hindrance is compensated by the increase of the polarizability of the alkyl groups.