KILLER BENZENE
Based on “Killer Queen” by, well, Queen
Original words and music by Freddie Mercury
For my Mum and Dad
It keeps all of its six carbons
In a planar hexagon,
All bonds the same, with each
Carbon bound to hydrogen;
Two carbon electrons
Form carbon-carbon sigma bonds,
And one's in every C-H bond - but carbon's got four:
Those six spare electrons are
In a pi molecular
Delocalised orbital -
It's a killer benzene - resonance stabilised,
Electrons are delocalised
Sigma bonds are strengthened by
Partial pi!
Ooh, recognised carcinogen
And probably a mutagen -
Wanna die?
It avoids hydrogenation
More than cyclohexatriene,
Stabilisation
Comes from aromaticity:
Pi electrons spread around
In a diffuse, planar cloud
Make all the bonds identical, and not keen to break;
It might just undergo addition (addition)
In quite severe conditions,
But products are hard to make -
It's a killer benzene - resonance stabilised,
Electrons are delocalised,
Sigma bonds are strengthened by
Partial pi!...
Find it in Kevlar and TCP,
Polystyrene, TNT:
Reluctantly undergoes reactions,
Substituting its hydrogens
But only for electrophiiiiiles
-phiiiiles
(They're out to get you...)
It's a killer benzene - resonance stabilised,
Electrons are delocalised
Sigma bonds are strengthened by
Partial pi;
Ooh, recognised carcinogen
And probably a mutagen -
Wanna die?
© Aimee Hartnell, July ‘04