The Quintessential Aromatic Hydrocarbon Benzene (Pt.3)

Chemistry
[caption id="attachment_18860" align="alignright" width="440"] Figure 1.[/caption] The aromatic hydrocarbon benzene, chemical formula C6H6, is the single most-often discussed of the aromatic hydrocarbons. It possesses the quintessential aromatic structure. How is that? It possesses the Hückel Rule correct number of 4n + 2 number π-electrons, for n = 1, and is flat. In addition, it meets all the other requirements for aromatic compounds. As an aromatic compound, its chemistry is considerably different than it would be if it existed as a mere cyclohexatriene isomer. We will discuss those differences in this, the third installment of our three-part article. Behavior of Hypothetical Cyclohexatriene Since cyclohexatriene would behave as if it were merely three conjugated1 double bonds, we would expect the compound to behave as any other alkene—rich in available electrons—only more so.…
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