Benzene

Benzene is an organic liquid with an aromatic odour, but it is extremely unhealthy because it is carcinogenic.

It is a carbon-6-corner with one hydrogen bond on each carbon atom and is the simplest compound based on the hexagonal carbon ring, the "benzene ring". The molecular formula is C6H6.

The names of a variety of substances can be traced to the term “benzene". Due to the aromatic odour of benzene, all organic molecules based on carbon rings are referred to as “aromatics", with the hexagon (the "benzene ring") being the most important and frequent but not the only aromatic ring. In German language, the word for petrol resp. gasoline is “Benzin”, which sounds like benzene. Actually, petrol contains a significant proportion of benzene, limited to 1% in most countries due to the toxicity of benzene. Benzene rings are rarely split in chemical reactions because they are chemically very stable.