Chapter 15, Problem 2PP

Interpretation Introduction

Interpretation:

The reason behind the nitration occurring more rapidly in a mixture of nitric acid and sulfuric acid, is to be explained.

Concept Introduction:

Nitration of benzene is a type of electrophilic substitution reaction. The mechanism of electrophilic aromatic substitution involves three steps.

The first step involves the generation of the electrophile; the second step involves the attack of the electrophile, followed by the removal of the hydrogen ion.

As the concentration of $N{O}_2^{+}$ ion formed from protonated nitric acid increases the rate of the reaction increases.