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enter image description here In carbonyl group there is a resonance avaibility and also due to inductive effect it can also withdraw electron from benzene ring . As, resonance(e- donating chracter) dominates than Inductive effect , it must be a Benzene activating group. but accorting to L.G Wade carbony groups are strong benzene deactivating group for Electrophillic Aromatic substitution Where am I wrong ? Explain.

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    $\begingroup$ Activating for nucleophilic substitution and deactivating for electrophilic aromatic substitution. $\endgroup$
    – Archer
    Commented Jun 28, 2018 at 18:01
  • $\begingroup$ @Archer I think you got it backwards. Activating is electron-donating, and deactivating is electron-withdrawing. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 21, 2023 at 3:32

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A carbonyl group such as an aldehyde is a deactivating group as it withdraws electron density by both the inductive effect (through the sigma bonds) and the resonance effect which involves pi systems.

Here are three resonance forms which show how the aldehyde group takes electron density from the benzene ring in benzaldehyde. There are more resonance forms and some different but related ones account for the reduction in the stability of the cationic intermidate in an aromatic substitution reaction.

enter image description here

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