[nadboudy]

hi, hope someone can help me
i need to suggest a synthesis of m-bromophenol from benzene.
this is what i have been able to get to: the hydroxyl group is an ortho/para director. bromine is weakly deactivating. OH donates electrons by resonance and has an activating effect. but i need to synthesise a meta product?
would i be on the right track by saying we synthesise the phenol first. but phenol is  an o/p director due to the lone pair on the oxygen.then do the rest in acidic solution to deactivate causing direction to the meta position??
please help me and give some directions . please note that this is just a chemistry question. i will not actually be making this compound.

[agrobert]

I don't think an acid catalyzed reaction will prefer meta bromination.  Think about other options including protection/deprotection or nucleophilic displacement reactions such as the Sandmeyer reaction. 

A procedure that will work but is not simple

Nitrobenzene -(bromination)-> 3-bromo-nitrobenzene -(reduction)-> 3-bromoaniline -(Sandmeyer-H₂O)-> 3-bromophenol

Check these websites out

http://www.cem.msu.edu/~reusch/VirtTxtJml/benzrx1.htm

http://www.cem.msu.edu/~reusch/VirtTxtJml/benzrx2.htm#benz8

[nadboudy]

thanks for that. the web page links are really useful. i think this is probably the answer.
thanks a lot