Benzen - Structure

Structure

Benzene represents a special problem in that, to account for the bond lengths quantitatively, there must either be electron delocalization (MO theory) or a spin coupling of the p-orbitals (VB theory):

X-ray diffraction shows that all of six carbon-carbon bonds in benzene are of the same length of 140 picometres (pm). The C–C bond lengths are greater than a double bond (135 pm) but shorter than a single bond (147 pm). This intermediate distance is consistent with electron delocalization: the electrons for C–C bonding are distributed equally between each of the six carbon atoms. Benzene has 8 hydrogen atoms fewer than the corresponding parent alkane, hexane. The molecule is planar. The MO description involves the formation of three delocalized π orbitals spanning all six carbon atoms, while in VB theory the aromatic properties of benzene originate from spin coupling of all six π orbitals. It is likely that this stability contributes to the peculiar molecular and chemical properties known as aromaticity. To indicate the delocalized nature of the bonding, benzene is often depicted with a circle inside a hexagonal arrangement of carbon atoms.

As is common in organic chemistry, the carbon atoms in the diagram above have been left unlabeled. Realizing each carbon has 2p electrons, each carbon donates an electron into the delocalized ring above and below the benzene ring. It is the side-on overlap of p-orbitals that produces the pi clouds.

Derivatives of benzene occur sufficiently often as a component of organic molecules that there is a Unicode symbol in the Miscellaneous Technical block with the code U+232C (⌬) to represent it with three double bonds, and U+23E3 (⏣) for a delocalized version.