Question

The reaction in an experiment is the Wittig synthesis of 1,4-Diphenyl-1,3-Butadiene, and one of the questions is:

In the reaction for this experiment, carbon is nucleophilic. Why is carbon not ordinarily nucleophilic?
What allows the carbon to remain in solution long enough to react in the way described by the Wittig reaction?

Answer 1

Step-by-step explanation:

Due to the presence of phenyl groups and diene, the aromaticity prevails and the nucleophilic carbon becomes part of aromaticity which increases the stability of entire compound. Therefore, the nucleophic carbon is considered