for example we'd want to do chlorination on para or meta xylene. which would yield the product at a faster rate?
initially, i thought it was para-xylene since there can only be one regiochemical outcome for the product.. but meh that wasn't really thought out
then i drew out the sigma complex for para and meta xylene and saw that the sigma complex for meta-xylene had more stability since 2 out of 3 of the resonance structures had the positive charge adjacent to the methyl group (i.e. there are more tertiary carbocations than secondary carbocations). i was thinking that since the sigma complex had additional stability, the activation energy would be lower, hence the a faster reaction
BUT then again, i searched up online the stability of all isomers of xylene (ortho, meta, para) and found the meta-xylene is most stable. If meta-xylene is most stable, does that mean it won't readily react as para-xylene?
now im really just confused between the two. was any of my guesses close to correct? can someone offer a better explanation? thanks