These are very important reactions because
they make new carbon-carbon bonds to aromatic rings. The two types
of reaction are alkylation and acylations.
Professor Charles Friedel was a French chemist
who discovered these reactions in 1877. He later became Professor
of organic Chemistry at the Sorbonne in Paris.
Professor James Crafts was an American,
younger than Friedel, who assisted in the development of the reactions.
He worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The
products of Friedel-Crafts reactions are key intermediates in the manufacture
of a wide range of materials.
