Answer to Question #58265 in Organic Chemistry for Anita

Question

Why is Benzene named as benzene? and why it is six-membered ring?

Answer 1

It was E. Mitscherlich who named benzene. In 1834 he obtained benzene by the dry distillation of the calcium salt of benzoic acid which was isolated from gum benzoin so he decided to call the compound "benzine". In english translation the word transformed into "benzene".
In 1865 another german chemist A. Kekule proposed a cyclic formula which eventually became accepted. This structure with three double bonds was proposed by Kekule as an attempt to explain how a molecule whose molecular formula was C6H6 could be built.