Ethylbenzene is generally prepared by acetylation of benzene followed by reduction and not by direct alkylation. Think of a possible reason.

Question

Philoid · Accepted Answer

Ethylbenzene is generally prepared by acetylation of benzene followed by reduction and not by direct alkylation. The reason behind this is the formation of polysubstitution products.

To avoid the formation of polysubstituted products Friedel-craft’s alkylation reaction is not used for the preparation of ethylbenzene but one can use Friedel-craft’s acylation reaction.