Past exam of the chemistry B course of the University of Cambridge 2023 Paper 1 B1 a Solution 2026-10-20
Number the ring with chlorine at C1 and the methylsulfonyl group at C4. The new nitro group is at C2, equivalently C6 by the starting ring's symmetry: the product is 1-chloro-2-nitro-4-(methylsulfonyl)benzene. Both substituents favour this site. Although chlorine deactivates the ring inductively, its lone pair donation stabilizes ortho/para Wheland intermediates. The sulfone is strongly electron withdrawing and meta directing; attack ortho or para to it produces especially unfavourable cationic contributors to resonance in chemistry. C2 is ortho to chlorine and meta to sulfone, whereas C3 has the opposite, less favourable relationship.
sulfuric acid protonates nitric acid, followed by loss of water to produce the nitronium ion. A ring pi bond attacks nitrogen, giving the Wheland intermediate with the new C–N bond. deprotonation at the attacked carbon restores aromaticity. This is electrophilic aromatic substitution: the aryl chloride and the sulfone both remain attached. The formula check is . It confirms replacement of one ring hydrogen rather than chlorine, but directing effects, rather than the formula alone, establish the position.
Independently drawn aromatic substitution products and the sites selected by protodebromination
. Details. Past exam of the chemistry B course of the University of Cambridge 2023 Paper 1 B1 b i Solution 2026-10-20
The malonate carbon receives two allyl groups. With , attached through its first carbon, the product issodium hydride removes a methylene proton from diethyl malonate; molecular hydrogen formation accompanies production of an enolate stabilized by resonance in chemistry. Its carbon attacks the bromomethylene carbon of allyl bromide in an SN2 reaction, expelling bromide. The monoalkylated malonate still has one hydrogen between the carbonyls. Excess base removes that hydrogen, and a second equivalent of allyl bromide produces a second carbon–carbon bond. The final malonate carbon has no remaining hydrogen and cannot undergo a third analogous deprotonation there.
The two alkenes are preserved because the substitution occurs at the primary carbon bearing bromine. Counting the introduced groups gives for the diallylated diethyl ester. Its two identical allyl groups also mean that the central carbon is not a stereocenter. This stage is the alkylation portion of the malonic ester synthesis.
Past exam of the chemistry B course of the University of Cambridge 2023 Paper 1 B1 c ii Solution 2026-10-20
The bromines ortho and para to OH are removed, leaving the meta bromine at C3. A suitable polar mechanism begins with electrophilic ipso protonation of a brominated carbon. protonation at C4 or C6 gives a Wheland intermediate stabilized by donation of the phenolic oxygen lone pair; an important contributor has an O-protonated cyclohexadienone-like framework. Corresponding protonation at C3 lacks this direct stabilization by resonance in chemistry from OH.
iodide can capture/reduce the departing electrophilic bromine as the C–Br bond electrons restore the aromatic pi system. Thus the incoming hydrogen remains on carbon while bromine is removed, unlike ordinary electrophilic substitution in which the incoming electrophile remains and a proton leaves. bromine trapping can be represented through IBr formation followed by reaction with further iodide to give iodine and bromide. For each replacement the balanced net reduction isApplying it at C4 and C6 gives 3-bromo-2,5-dimethylphenol, with formula . This explains why the position least activated by OH is the one at which bromine survives. It is a proposed acid-assisted protodebromination mechanism consistent with the selectivity; the preparative sequence alone does not prove every proton-transfer or halogen-transfer intermediate. It should not be drawn as iodide simply displacing bromide from an unactivated aryl carbon.
Past exam of the chemistry B course of the University of Cambridge 2023 Paper 1 B2 c i Solution 2026-10-20
The phenolic O–H is most acidic; the benzylic CH2 adjacent to the amide carbonyl is second. Phenolic deprotonation gives a phenoxide stabilized by resonance in chemistry. Removing an alpha-amide C–H gives an enolate/carbanion stabilized by the carbonyl and the adjoining aryl group, but requires substantially stronger basicity for a comparable equilibrium concentration. The morpholine nitrogen is an acylated tertiary amide nitrogen and has no N–H proton. The other morpholine and aromatic C–H positions do not have the same direct carbonyl stabilization.
Past exam of the chemistry B course of the University of Cambridge 2023 Paper 1 B5 a i Solution 2026-10-20
The acceptor-strength trend is amide oxygen and amine nitrogen strongest, ketone oxygen weaker, hydrocarbon essentially nonaccepting. trimethylamine and isopropylamine each provide a relatively available nitrogen lone pair; adding N–H bonds changes donor ability much more conspicuously than it changes the acceptor ranking in this comparison. Alkyl substitution and solvation modify the precise values, so the matching amine parameters should be read as the stated empirical strengths rather than a universal equality of all amines.
In acetamide, nitrogen lone-pair donation contributes an form contributing to resonance in chemistry, increasing electron density at oxygen and making it a strong hydrogen bond acceptor. The amide acceptor is oxygen, not nitrogen: the nitrogen lone pair is delocalized into the carbonyl. acetone also accepts at oxygen, but lacks this nitrogen-to-carbonyl donation and has the smaller hydrogen-bond acceptor parameter. isobutane has neither a heteroatom lone pair nor a comparable acceptor site; its zero value is consistent with the absence of an ordinary directional hydrogen bond acceptor.
Past exam of the chemistry B course of the University of Cambridge 2023 Paper 2 B10 a Solution 2026-10-20
water stabilizes the planar amide more strongly relative to the twisted rotational transition region, increasing the free-energy barrier. nitrogen lone-pair donation into the carbonyl gives the C–N bond partial double-bond character through amide resonance, represented byamide bond rotation between the two amide conformations requires loss of favourable overlap. Near a strongly twisted geometry the nitrogen lone pair is less conjugated with C=O, and the charge-separated resonance in chemistry contribution is reduced. Polar water, a hydrogen bond donor, preferentially stabilizes the planar starting structures, including their polar carbonyl/resonance distribution, compared with this less conjugated rotational region. chloroform provides less of that differential stabilization. What controls the rate is the difference between the starting minimum and the transition state, not the absolute stabilization of either one in isolation.
For a first-order interpretation of the half-lives, the characteristic rate constants areThus the interconversion is 25 times slower in water. With comparable Eyring equation prefactors at the same temperature,which is about at . This temperature is illustrative because none is specified for the measurements.
The two endpoint conformations remain minima separated by a twisted barrier in each solvent. The profiles are schematic, with arbitrary absolute barriers; the half-life ratio supports the relative kinetic comparison. If the quoted half-lives describe relaxation of a reversible cis/trans mixture, , so the ratio directly concerns relaxation rates. Assigning the full difference to one microscopic forward barrier additionally requires comparable equilibrium populations or directional-rate information.
Past exam of the chemistry B course of the University of Cambridge 2023 Paper 2 B6 b i Solution 2026-10-20
ammonia and cyclohexylamine are sigma-donor ligands; chloride and acetate are sigma- and pi-donor ligands. The nitrogen lone pair of each amine points toward the metal and forms the donor interaction. These saturated amines have no low-lying conjugated acceptor system that would make them conventional pi-acceptor ligands.
chloride uses a lone pair for sigma donation and has additional occupied orbitals perpendicular to the bond that can donate with pi symmetry. An oxygen-bound acetate similarly has occupied oxygen-centred orbitals available for sigma and pi donation, although its carboxylate resonance in chemistry changes their energies and distribution. Neither should be classified as a pi acceptor merely because its bonding can be drawn with multiple bonds or resonance in chemistry contributors. None of these four is a standard sigma-donor/pi-acceptor ligand.

