Benzene

Benzene is a colorless, volatile, flammable aromatic hydrocarbon with formula C₆H₆. Its unusually stable six-carbon ring is a major industrial chemical feedstock, but exposure can cause cancer.

Aromaticity: The enhanced stability and distinctive bonding of certain cyclic, conjugated molecules. Benzene is the canonical example of aromatic stabilization.
Ethylbenzene: An aromatic hydrocarbon made by attaching an ethyl group to a benzene ring. It is converted industrially into styrene, a precursor to polystyrene.
Benzene toxicity: The harmful effects benzene exposure can have on blood-forming tissues and other organs. It describes the health effects that make benzene exposure hazardous.
Michael Faraday: An English scientist whose work spanned electromagnetism, electrochemistry, and chemistry. Faraday isolated benzene from oil gas in 1825.
Cyclohexatriene: A hypothetical or localized-bond description of a six-membered ring with three ordinary carbon–carbon double bonds. Benzene does not behave like a ring with three independent alkene bonds.
Hückel's rule: A rule predicting aromaticity in planar, cyclic, conjugated molecules with 4n + 2 π electrons. Benzene’s six π electrons satisfy the rule for aromaticity.
Cumene: An aromatic hydrocarbon consisting of a benzene ring bonded to an isopropyl group. The cumene process uses it to produce phenol and acetone.
Leukemia: A group of cancers arising in blood-forming tissues, including bone marrow. Long-term benzene exposure is causally linked to acute myeloid leukemia.
August Kekulé: A German chemist who helped establish structural theory and proposed a ring structure for benzene. His structural proposal addressed benzene’s formula and limited number of substitution products.
Cyclohexene: A six-carbon ring containing one carbon–carbon double bond. Its localized alkene bond undergoes addition reactions more readily than benzene’s aromatic ring.

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