Zinc bromide supported on mesoporous silica or acidactivated montmorillonite is a fast, efficient, selective and reusable catalyst for the para-bromination of activated and moderately deactivated aromatic substrates.

ChemInform is a weekly Abstracting Service, delivering concise information at a glance that was extracted from about 100 leading journals. To access a ChemInform Abstract of an article which was published elsewhere, please select a “Full Text” option. The original article is trackable via the “References” option.

Zinc bromide supported on acid activated montmorillonite (K-10) or mesoporous silica (100 Å) is a fast, selective catalyst for the para-bromination of activated and mildly deactivated aromatic substrates. The optimum loading of zinc bromide on K-10 is 1.25 mmol/g and 1.75 mmol/g on the higher surface area silica (100 Å). Thermal activation of these catalysts at 200 °C results in optimum activity and selectivity. Also, system optimisation has allowed harmful chlorinated solvents to be replaced by less damaging hydrocarbon solvents.