Why are nitro phenols more acidic than chloro phenols

Dear Student,

The nitro group has -M (mesomeric/ resonance) effect. i.e. it pulls the electron density from the phenyl ring towards itself with a resonating effect. But, the chloro group has only -I (inductive) effect.
Due to resonation effect, the stability of the conjugate base formed out of nitrophenols is more than that formed out of chlorophenols and hence, these are stronger acids.



Regards

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