eng Science and Education Publishing World Journal of Chemical Education 2375-1657 2019-08-25 7 3 216 224 10.12691/wjce-7-3-5 WJCE2019735 article Michelle K. Waddell 1 Charles M. Bump 1 Edmund M. Ndip 1 Godson C. Nwokogu godson.nwokogu@hamptonu.edu 1 Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Hampton University, Hampton, VA 23668, U.S.A. High resolution 1H NMR spectroscopy, an increasingly available instrumental method, is used in undergraduate organic laboratory practice as a simpler alternative to gas chromatographic method for the direct determination of the p/o ratios of the crude reaction product from the nitration of alkylbenzenes. The choice of isopropylbenzene as a substrate illustrates that steric effect can be significant in controlling regioselectivity in electrophilic aromatic substitution reactions. http://pubs.sciepub.com/wjce/7/3/5/wjce-7-3-5.pdf laboratory instruction organic chemistry laboratory electrophilic aromatic substitution nitration of aromatic compounds regioselectivity quantitative ¹H NMR spectroscopy