A-Level Chemistry

The Structure of Benzene

In this video, we look at the structure of the aromatic compound benzene. First we explore Kekulé’s proposed structure and the four lines of evidence that this structure is incorrect. These are the lack of reactivity with bromine, the bond lengths, the enthalpy change of hydrogenation and the lack of isomers. We then look at the delocalised model for the structure of benzene which scientists now consider to be correct.