Acylation - Definition

In chemistry, acylation is the process of adding an acyl group to a compound. The compound providing the acyl group is called the acylating agent.

Because they form a strong electrophile when treated with some metal catalysts, ethanoyl halides are commonly used as acylating agents. For example, Friedel-Crafts acylation uses ethanol chloride (CH₃COCl) as the agent to add an acyl group to benzene:

Succinic acid is also commonly used in a specific type of acylation called succination. Oversuccination occurs when more than one succinate adds to a single compound.

Related topics

• acetyl
• ketene
• indicator
• chemical synthesis

References

• NIH Thesaurus (http://crisp.cit.nih.gov/Thesaurus/00000094.htm)

External links

• Federal Judicial Affairs of Canada case (http://reports.fja.gc.ca/fc/1997/pub/v2/1997fc19793.html)
• Friedel-Crafts acylation of benzene (http://www.chemguide.co.uk/mechanisms/elsub/fcacyl.html)