Why is furan an aromatic compound?

1 Answer
Ernest Z. · Media Owl
May 5, 2015

Furan is an aromatic compound because one of the lone pairs of electrons on the oxygen atom is delocalized into the ring.

![Orbital structures of electrons from http://wps.prenhall.com.](http://wps.prenhall.com/wps/media/objects/724/741576/Instructor_Resources/Chapter_21/Text_Images/FG21_00-68UN.JPG)

The oxygen atom is sp² hybridized, with one of its lone pairs in a p orbital.

This creates a cyclic π system with six electrons.

According to Hückel's 4n+2 rule, this is an aromatic π system.

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