Question

Discuss the importance of Benzene in pharmaceuticals, biologicals, and industrial chemistry.

Answer 1

Benzene is a hydrocarbon having chemical formula C₆H₆. It has a cyclic planar structure and consists three pi-bonds(6 electrons i.e. 4n+2 number of pi electrons are present) which shows resonance. So by Huckel's rule it is an aromatic compound which makes it very stable.

The stability of this compound leads to its use as a starting material for synthesis of other compounds and so it has a huge importance in pharmaceutical and chemical industries. Benzene can undergo substitution reaction, it has six carbons all of which can be substituted but it depends on the reaction conditions and on the previous substitutions made. Therefore it is an intermediate to make various chemicals like ethylbenzene, cumene, cyclohexane which further gives valuable polymers like polystyrene, phenol resins, nylon. This is shown schematically in the figure below.

Benzene is a widely used solvent in various industries. It is a colorless highly volatile solvent used in various industries. It has importance in biologicals and pharmaceuticals as most drugs and pesticides contain benzene rings. This is due to the ease with which benzene can undergo substitution reaction and hence many complex compounds can be made from this.

Benzene is found in crude oil, it is a major part of gasoline due to its high octane number which is measure of the performance of an engine.

It is also found in most products used in printing industry, use to produce detergents, dyes and many more.

So all the above uses of benzene makes it important in pharmaceutical, biologicals and industrial chemistry.