Question

How are the following compounds prepared?
Acetophenone from benzene

Answer 1

We must know the reagents used for the conversion to the given products. The Friedel Craft acylation reaction can be used for this conversion.

Complete step by step answer:
Basically we have to convert benzene to a ketone. For this conversion we have to do Friedel Craft Acylation reaction. We will use ethanoyl chloride and anhydrous aluminium chloride as the reagents. After heating the benzene with above reagents we will get Acetophenone. The reaction proceeds as follow:
${{\text{C}}_6}{{\text{H}}_6} + {\text{C}}{{\text{H}}_3} - {\text{CO}} - {\text{Cl}}\xrightarrow[\Delta ]{{{\text{Anh}}.{\text{AlC}}{{\text{l}}_3}}}{{\text{C}}_6}{{\text{H}}_5} - {\text{CO}} - {\text{C}}{{\text{H}}_3}$

Additional information:
Benzene is a six member organic molecule. It is a hydrocarbon that consists only of carbon and hydrogen. It is a planar molecule. It is widely as solvent as for many organic compounds that are insoluble in water. Earlier benzene was also used as an additive in fuel but now toluene has substituted benzene. The reason is toluene is less toxic than benzene and has a higher liquid range.
Acetophenone is the simplest organic aromatic ketone. It is colourless and viscous. We can even produce acetophenone as a byproduct from the oxidation of ethyl benzene and we have seen we can even produce acetophenone from the above reaction.

Note:
Friedel-Craft reactions are mainly of two types: Friedel Craft alkylation and Friedel Craft acylation. In the above question we have made use of the latter one. Lewis acids such as aluminium chloride are used as catalysts for this type of reaction. Carbonyls have electron withdrawing effect and hence the ketone formed will be less reactive than benzene or original molecule taken.