Nitration Chemistry Nitration is a fundamental reaction in chemistry. Nitration reactions are usually necessary to produce precursors of final products (e.g., pharmaceuticals, agriculture, fine chemistry, precursors for polymers, pigments, explosives…). The relevance of nitration chemistry can be highlighted by the fact that nitrocompounds are the starting materials for a large variety of materials containing nitrogen. According to the European Chemicals Bureau (ECB), from about 100,000 registered chemical substances in Europe, nearly 5 percent are nitrocompounds! In most cases the nitration reaction is the most critical step of a synthesis route (a popular example in this context is the nitration step during the synthesis of "Viagra"). As nitration reactions are highly exothermic reactions, they encompass an enormous hazardous potential. Hot spots within the reactor might give rise to an uncontrollable temperature increase and can cause significant damage. Hence, often less effective nitration agents are used only to decrease the hazardous potential of the process.

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