Nitration of 2-phenylcyclohexanone

Abstract

Nitration of 2-phenylcyclohexanone (1a) with mixed acid results in oxidative cleavage to a mixture of nitrobenzoic acids but use of copper(II) nitrate in acetic anhydride yields 2-(4'-nitrophenyl)cyclo-hexanone (1b) and smaller amounts of 6-(4'-nitrophenyl)-6-oxohexanoic acid (2).