Published in Henry Rzepa's Blog
Author Henry Rzepa
The knowledge that substituents on a benzene ring direct an electrophile engaged in a ring substitution reaction according to whether they withdraw or donate electrons is very old.[cite]10.1039/CT8875100258[/cite] Introductory organic chemistry tells us that electron donating substituents promote the ortho and para positions over the meta . Here I try to recover some of this information by searching crystal structures.