Halogenation

Treatment of a compound that contains an aromatic ring with chlorine or bromine in the presence of a catalyst, typically iron (Fe) or an iron(III) halide (FeX₃), brings about electrophilic aromatic substitution of one of the ring hydrogen atoms by the halogen.

Certain highly reactive aromatic compounds, especially derivatives of phenol (C₆H₅OH) and aniline (C₆H₅NH₂), undergo halogenation of the ring rapidly, even in the absence of a catalyst.

The reaction of benzene with fluorine is difficult to control and gives a mixture of polyfluorinated derivatives of cyclohexane (C₆H₁₂). Dehydrofluorination of these compounds in the presence of strong bases yields fluorinated derivatives of benzene. Direct iodination of aromatic rings requires specialized reagents and is not often carried out.

Diazonium ions

Aryl diazonium ions (ArN⁺≡N, where Ar denotes an aromatic ring) are especially useful starting materials for preparing aryl halides, because they provide access to aryl halides as well as to phenols and nitriles. Aryl diazonium ions are prepared by diazotization, a procedure in which a primary aromatic amine (ArNH₂) is treated with a source of nitrous acid (HNO₂). Typically this involves adding sodium nitrite (NaNO₂) to an aqueous acidic solution containing the amine.

Once formed, the aryl diazonium ion is converted to an aryl chloride or bromide by heating the ion in the presence of the appropriate copper(I) salt. Aryl iodides are prepared by adding potassium iodide to the solution of the aryl diazonium ion.

Aryl fluorides are prepared by converting the aryl diazonium ion to its corresponding fluoroborate salt and then isolating and heating the aryl diazonium fluoroborate.

Reactions

A halogen substituent on an aromatic ring can be a functional group (i.e., the site of chemical reactivity) itself, or it can influence the course of reactions that involve other parts of the molecule. The latter of these effects is seen in electrophilic aromatic substitution of aryl halides. When present as a substituent on an aromatic ring, a halogen deactivates the ring toward electrophilic aromatic substitution (i.e., makes it less reactive than benzene) and directs incoming substituents to positions ortho and para to itself.

When the halogen acts as a functional group, aryl halides are less reactive than alkyl halides and more closely resemble vinylic halides in their reactivity. Nucleophilic aromatic substitution is a practical synthetic reaction only when the aryl halide bears a strongly electron-attracting substituent, such as a nitro group NO₂, at a position ortho or para to the halogen, as in 1-chloro-4-nitrobenzene:

Additional nitro groups make the aryl halide even more reactive. 1-Chloro-2,4-dinitrobenzene, for example, reacts with sodium methoxide in methanol at 50 °C (120 °F) more than 30,000 times faster than does 1-chloro-4-nitrobenzene.

Nucleophilic aromatic substitution of nitro-substituted aryl halides probably proceeds by attachment of the nucleophile to the aromatic ring in a step that precedes loss of the halide leaving group. This nucleophilic addition step is facilitated by the presence of the electron-attracting nitro group. The negatively charged intermediate formed by nucleophilic addition then rapidly expels the halide ion to form the observed product.

Unlike other nucleophilic substitutions of organohalogen compounds, the relative rates do not parallel carbon-halogen bond strengths. Aryl chlorides, bromides, and iodides are similar in reactivity to one another, an observation that provides the experimental basis for the belief that the carbon-halogen bond is not broken until after the slow step of the mechanism. Aryl chlorides, bromides, and iodides are all far less reactive than aryl fluorides, consistent with the formation of the negatively charged intermediate shown in the slow step. The highly electronegative fluorine substituent stabilizes this intermediate much more than do the other halogens and causes it to be formed faster.

The low reactivity of simple aryl halides toward nucleophilic substitution is illustrated by the observation that temperatures on the order of 350 °C (660 °F) are required in order to convert chlorobenzene to phenol by reaction with sodium hydroxide. Furthermore, the reaction has been shown to proceed by a mechanism different from conventional nucleophilic substitution pathways. It proceeds in two stages, the first of which is an elimination in which a formal triple bond is incorporated into the ring to give a benzyne intermediate. In the second stage of the mechanism, a hydroxide ion and a proton add to the benzyne intermediate to give the product.

The involvement of benzynelike intermediates, called arynes, has been demonstrated in numerous reactions of aryl halides with strong bases.

Aryl halides (ArX), especially bromides and iodides, are converted to Grignard reagents (ArMgX) by reaction with magnesium. These arylmagnesium halides are similar in reactivity and in their applications to alkylmagnesium halides.