The Sandmeyer reaction is a chemical reaction used to synthesize aryl halides from aryl diazonium salts using copper salts as reagents or catalysts. It is an example of a radical-nucleophilic aromatic substitution. The Sandmeyer reaction provides a method through which one can perform unique transformations on benzene, such as halogenation, cyanation, trifluoromethylation, and hydroxylation. The reaction was discovered in 1884 by Swiss chemist Traugott Sandmeyer, when he attempted to synthesize phenylacetylene from benzenediazonium chloride and copper(I) acetylide. Instead, the main product he isolated was chlorobenzene. In modern times, the Sandmeyer reaction refers to any method for substitution of an aromatic amino group via preparation of its diazonium salt followed by its displacement with a nucleophile in the presence of catalytic copper(I) salts. (Due to the low cost of copper salts, a stoichiometric amount is often employed for better reactivity even when catalysis is possible.) The most commonly employed Sandmeyer reactions are the chlorination, bromination, cyanation, and hydroxylation reactions using CuCl, CuBr, CuCN, and Cu2O, respectively. More recently, trifluoromethylation of diazonium salts has been developed and is referred to as a 'Sandmeyer-type' reaction. Diazonium salts also react with boronates, iodide, thiols, water, hypophosphorous acid and others, and fluorination can be carried out using tetrafluoroborate anions (Balz–Schiemann reaction). However, since these processes do not require a metal catalyst, they are not usually referred to as Sandmeyer reactions. In numerous variants that have been developed, other transition metal salts, including copper(II), iron(III) and cobalt(III) have also been employed. Due to its wide synthetic applicability, the Sandmeyer reaction, along with other transformations of diazonium compounds, is complementary to electrophilic aromatic substitution. Reaction conditions and mechanism The nitrous acid is typically prepared in situ from sodium nitrite and acid. Following two protonation steps, one equivalent of water is lost to form the nitrosonium ion. The nitrosonium ion then acts as an electrophile in a reaction with an aromatic (or heterocyclic) amine, such as aniline, to form a diazonium salt, proceeding through a nitrosamine intermediate. Typical reaction conditions are as follows: Chlorination: , CuCl, HCl (36% aq.), 50–100 °C; Bromination: , CuBr, HBr (48% aq.), 50–100 °C; Cyanation: , CuCN, KCN, H2O, benzene, 0 °C; Hydroxylation: Cu2O, Cu(NO3)2, H2O, 25 °C. The Sandmeyer reaction is an example of a radical-nucleophilic aromatic substitution (SRNAr). The radical mechanism of the Sandmeyer reaction is supported by the detection of biaryl byproducts. The substitution of the aromatic diazo group with