Isolation of benzene
Aislamiento del benceno
- Date
- 1825 · confidence high
- Place
- Royal Institution, London, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- Michael Faraday
- Field
- Matter & energy
What was discovered
Michael Faraday isolated benzene in 1825 from the oily residue of the illuminating gas used to light London, naming it 'bicarburet of hydrogen'; it was the first aromatic hydrocarbon obtained as a pure substance.
The compound was renamed several times: 'bicarburet of hydrogen' (Faraday), 'benzin' (Mitscherlich, 1833) and finally 'benzene'; not to be confused with Kekulé's 1865 determination of its ring structure, a separate, already-catalogued milestone.
What it led to
- Systematic study of aromatic hydrocarbons
- Determination of benzene's ring structure (Kekulé, 1865)
- The coal-tar chemical industry and synthetic dyes