"I'll just add propanol to benzene." Correction: You cannot directly add an alcohol to benzene. Benzene is unreactive to nucleophiles.
: Always number your carbon backbone from starting material to product. It prevents you from accidentally losing or adding atoms during complex rearrangements.
Distinguishing between primary (
The hydroxyl group on the tertiary carbon grabs a proton from H2SO4cap H sub 2 cap S cap O sub 4 . This converts −OHnegative cap O cap H into the excellent leaving group