Hi,

 

benzene has a sandwich structure with delocalised pi electron over and under the carbon ring. Does this gives the stability to benzene because all the p-orbitals overlap to form a diffused ring of electrons. Or is it something else.

 

Thnx

http://www.cem.msu.edu/~reusch/VirtualText/react3.htm

 

"....a fully occupied (6 electrons) set of bonding molecular orbitals. It is this completely filled set of bonding orbitals, or closed shell, that gives the benzene ring its thermodynamic and chemical stability, just as a filled valence shell octet confers stability on the inert gases."

yes, the stability comes from the resonance of the pi orbitals, making in a sense a race track for electrons,

4=2n I do believe is the formula for electrons of rings that maintain this stability