A carbocation is easily attacked by the pi cloud of an aromatic compound leading to an alkylarene by SEAr.
The mechanism is as usual:
The necessary carbocations can be generated by various methods:
HOWEVER, Friedel-Crafts alkylations display serious inconveniences:
Charles Friedel (1832-1899): French chemist and mineralogist. He worked with Wurtz. In 1877, together with Crafts, he put forward a general synthetic method that allowed the attachment of alkyl or acyl chains to benzene.
James Mason Crafts (1839-1917): Northamerican chemist who studied in Harvard, Germany y France. He was chemistry professor in Cornell and M.I.T. president.
