The history behind the discovery of benzene rings

Benzene is considered as one of the fundamental structures in organic chemistry. Benzene has several applications
in the manufacturing industry. However, the structure benzene attracted lot of attention when it was first discovered in
the 19th century. Michael Faraday was the scientist who first discovered benzene ring in the year 1825. He had
christened it as bicarburet of hydrogen. However, Eilhard Mitscherlich was the scientist who named it benzene in
1833. He had distilled this compound from gum benzoin. Benzene gained widespread importance in the paint
industry as it could easily remove paint stains from the surfaces of metals.
Because benzene is an important chemical, several efforts were made to elucidate the chemical structure of
benzene. At the point of time, scientists knew that benzene contained six atoms of carbon and hydrogen in its
chemical structure (C6H6). This baffled chemists because carbon is known to be tetravalent. This means that every
carbon atom is capable of chemical bonds with four other atoms. The tetravalency of carbon was proved by Friedrich
August Kekule, one of the most reputed scientists of that era. In contrast, the carbon atoms were bonded with only
two atoms in the benzene ring. Thus, it did not obey Kekules rule.
But, the presence of unsaturated carbon atoms was also proposed by Archibald Scott Couper and Joseph
Loschmidt at that point of time. Carbon atom is termed to be saturated if it bonded with four atoms in a given
molecule. However, it is termed as unsaturated if more than one bond exists between two carbon atoms.
The exact structure of benzene was correctly put forth by Friedrich August Kekule. It was quite challenging for him to
determine the correct structure of benzene. He was actually solving a chemistry problem and day-dreaming. At that
point of time, he saw a snake coiling up and biting its own tail. Looking at the snake, he thought that benzene may be
ring structure.
He first published an article elucidating the structure of benzene in the year 1865. The article which was published in
a leading French journal gained the attention of eminent people in the scientific community. Kekule considered
benzene to be a core ring containing six carbon atoms. The ring of carbon atoms was such that it bound carbon
atoms through alternating single and double bonds. When he elucidated the structure of benzene ring, it also led to
the development of significant pathways in organic chemistry. Now, organic chemists were able to synthesize several
derivatives of benzene compounds. These were collectively termed as aromatic compounds. These benzene
compounds were extensively used for industrial and medicinal purposes. Most scientists were very elated with the
discovery of benzene ring. The German Chemical Society celebrated the 25th anniversary of benzene ring discovery
in the year 1890.
Before the commencement of the First World War, one of the primary uses of benzene was gasoline blending. This is
because benzene had the capability of increasing the octane number of gasoline. Numerous chemical manufacturers
made use of benzene as a solvent. Benzene was also used extensively in the chemical industry during the Second
World War. Today, benzene is used as the primary compound for synthesizing different kinds of aromatic compounds,
which are used as intermediate compounds in the synthesis of drugs, insecticides and plastics.

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