Question

What is the action of the following reagent on bromomethane?

bromobenzene

Answer 1

Bromobenzene (C₆H₅Br) and bromomethane (CH₃Br) do not react directly under normal conditions because both are halogenated organic compounds and lack a strong nucleophile or electrophile to facilitate a reaction.
However, under Wurtz-Fittig reaction conditions (using sodium metal in dry ether), bromobenzene and bromomethane undergo a coupling reaction to form toluene (C₆H₅CH₃).