Ligand Exchange Reaction of Ferrocene with Substituted Benzenes

Ligand exchange reaction is one of the typical reactions of ferrocene. In this paper, ligand exchange reactions were carried out between ferrocene and various substituted benzenes using aluminum chloride catalysis. The product yields of the reactions with alkanoyl- and alkoxybenzenes were low because of the coordination of aluminum chloride to the oxygens of the benzene substituents. Comparing the reactions using o- and p-dimethoxybenzene, the former was revealed to be less reactive; this is likely due to the deviation of the π-electrons of its benzene ring being larger.