The Furan reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Furan

In chemistry, furan, C₄H₄O is a pentacyclic ring compound with four carbon atoms and one oxygen atom forming the ring.

It is often drawn with each carbon atom within the ring having a single bond to another atom in the ring, one externally to hydrogen, and a double bond to another carbon.

The lone pair of the oxygen atom is delocalised into the ring creating a 4n+2 aromatic system, in a similar way to which a carbon-carbon double bond is in benzene thereby creating a ring of electrons around the structure with no discrete double or single bonds.

Often used as a solvent the most commonly used derivative of a furan is tetra-hydrofuran, C₄H₈O (often abbreviated to THF).

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