Playbook
Aromatic Compounds
35 q - 0.96/paper - 3% HARD. Aromaticity, directing groups and side-chain oxidation.
- Questions in the bank
- 35
- q/paper (2024–25 papers)
- 0.96
- Tagged HARD
- 3%
- Subtopics
- 3
Strand: Reactions
When you’ll see it
A benzene ring — aromatic or not, substituted where, or a side chain oxidised.
How this chapter is tested
35 q at 0.96 a paper, 3% HARD. Aromaticity is Hückel's rule: a planar, cyclic, conjugated ring with 4n + 2 π electrons. Electrophilic substitution (12 q) is where a second group goes: –OH, –NH₂, –CH₃ and halogens direct ortho/para; –NO₂, –COOH, –CHO direct meta.
Side-chain reactions (15 q) are mostly oxidation — KMnO₄ turns any alkyl chain with a benzylic hydrogen into –COOH — and Friedel–Crafts reactions with AlCl₃.
The sub-skills
The distinct skills inside the chapter, in the order to learn them.
Hückel's rule
Planar, cyclic, conjugated, 4n + 2 π electrons (benzene 6, n = 1).
Directing groups
Activators (–OH, –NH₂, –R) and halogens: ortho/para. Deactivators (–NO₂, –CN, –COOH): meta.
Side-chain oxidation
Alkyl benzene + KMnO₄ → benzoic acid, whatever the chain length.
Traps to expect
Distractor shapes this chapter reuses. The Traps page covers the patterns that cut across chapters.
Halogens as deactivators
Halogens slow the reaction yet direct ortho/para — the one group where the two rules part.
Chain length after oxidation
Ethylbenzene and propylbenzene both oxidise to benzoic acid; the extra carbons leave.
Learn it before you drill it
This chapter has full teaching notes — foundations, worked examples, self-checks and a per-subtopic mastery checkpoint. Read the notes once, then drill subtopic by subtopic below.
Aromatic Compounds notesDrill every aromatic compounds question
35 questions from the bank, scoped to 3 bundled subtopics.
Drill one subtopic at a time
The 3 subtopics this playbook covers, in catalog order.
Related playbooks
Often paired with this one — the technique, the trap or the taxonomy overlaps. Drill these next.