[Melon]

Hello everyone, thank you for reading! I just have a question :

Regarding reactions surrounding phenol, can the -OH group in phenol react with aqueous Bromine? Also, can it react with liquid bromine? Why or why not?


Thank you very much for reading! 

[sjb]

What do you envisage as being the products?

[Arkcon]

What difference is there between aqueous and liquid bromine?  This is not a trivial question.

[Melon]

From what I understand the difference between liquid and aqueous bromine is that aqueous bromine also contains H2O molecules which can also partially ionise to form H+ and OH- ions at low concentration, so predominantly it is H2O molecules

From what I've studied reaction with bromine would form 2,4,6-tribromophenol and HBr, and as far as I understand the -OH group is also strongly attached to the benzene ring similar to the case of chlorobenzene, and thus it would not be very reactive since the bonds are very hard to break

Would it be correct to say that? Thank you!