biphenylene

Biphenylene is an organic compound with the formula (C6H4)2. It is a pale, yellowish solid with a hay-like odor. Despite its unusual structure, it behaves like a traditional polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon.

==Bonding== Biphenylene is a polycyclic hydrocarbon, composed of two benzene rings joined by two bridging bonds (as opposed to a normal ring fusion), thus forming a 6-4-6 arene system. The resulting planar structure was one of the first π-electronic hydrocarbon systems discovered to show evidence of antiaromaticity. The spectral and chemical properties show the influence of the central [4n] ring, leading to considerable interest in the system in terms of its degree of lessened aromaticity. Questions of bond alternation and ring currents have been investigated repeatedly. Both X-ray diffraction and electron diffraction studies show a considerable alternation of bond lengths, with the bridging bonds between the benzenoid rings having the unusually great length of 1.524 Å. The separation of the rings is also reflected by the absence of the transmission of NMR substituent effects through the central [4n] ring. However, more sensitive NMR evidence, and particularly the shifting of proton resonances to high field, does indicate the existence of electron delocalization in the central [4n] ring. This upfield shift has been interpreted in terms of diminished benzenoid ring currents, either with or without an accompanying paramagnetic ring current in the central [4n] ring. Magnetic susceptibility measurements also show a diminishing of both diamagnetic exaltation and diamagnetic anisotropy, relative to comparable pure [4n+2] systems, which is also consistent with a reduction of ring current diamagnetism. The electronic structure of biphenylene in the gas phase has the HOMO at a binding energy of 7.8 eV.