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Why are aromatic compounds saturated?

Answer 1

You mean #"why are aromatic compounds unsaturated?"#.

A saturated organic compound has general formula #C_nH_(2n+2)#. Halides count for #H#, and if the formula contains nitrogen, we subtract #NH# before the determination. Every #2H"'s"# less than the saturated formula corresponds to #"a degree of unstaturation"#. And each degree of unsaturation corresponds to either a double bond (i.e. #C=O#, #C=C#, #C=N#) OR a ring junction.

For benzene, the molecular formula is #C_6H_6#. A saturated alkane with 6 carbons would have a formula of #C_6H_14#. Thus benzene has #4# degrees of unsaturation. The representation of benzene as #"1,3,5-cyclohexatriene"# makes these degrees of unsaturation very easy to see.

Thus, aromatic compounds are unsaturated by definition.

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Answer 2

Madison Anderson

Aromatic compounds are not saturated; they are unsaturated hydrocarbons. The term "aromatic" refers to compounds that contain a cyclic structure with delocalized pi electrons, known as an aromatic ring. These compounds often exhibit a high degree of stability due to resonance within the ring structure.

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Answer from HIX Tutor

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.