[skido123]

In the prep. of p-Nitroaniline from aniline(C6HNH2)..Why is it crucial not to miss the first step of treating aniline with acetic anhydride and carboxylic acid to form acetylanelide? Why can't you simply nitrate the the aniline directly? Would the nitrate step even work? If it doesn't work what product do you get?

[AWK]

Nitric acid protonizes amine group and deactivare ring for the electrophilic substitution. Moreover aniline can be easily oxidized by the nitric acid