The simplest of such chemicals are naphthalene, having two aromatic rings, and the three-ring compounds anthracene and phenanthrene. The group is a major subset of the aromatic hydrocarbons.
Bottom: atomic force microscopy image.Ī polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon ( PAH) is a hydrocarbon-a chemical compound containing only carbon and hydrogen-that is composed of multiple aromatic rings. Middle: ball-and-stick model showing all carbon and hydrogen atoms. Top: standard line-angle schematic, where carbon atoms are represented by the vertices of the hexagons and hydrogen atoms are inferred. Three representations of hexabenzocoronene, a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon.
