Historical Overview

The field of aromaticity was initiated in 1825 when Michael Faraday produced benzene for the first time by distillation of an oily residue, and named it “dicarburet of hydrogen.” Since then, the number and type of compounds that can be considered aromatic has experienced an enormous growth. Now, a large number of chemical species are considered aromatic, not only in their ground states, but also in some excited states. In this chapter, we summarize the main historical developments in the field of aromaticity.