Highly competitive and selective electrophilic catalytic bromination of polynitro stilbenes with molecular bromine in the presence of ZnO/H-beta-25

An efficient methodology for bromination of polynitro stilbenes using molecular bromine as brominating agent over ZnO/H-beta-25 has been developed, which is conducted under mild condition, in good to high yield with excellent regio- and chemo-selectivities. Preliminary mechanistic studies have shown that this reaction most likely occurs via a noncovalent binding of molecular bromine to benzene ring involving styryl structure.