Uses of Benzene
In the 19th and early-20th centuries, benzene was used as an aftershave because of its pleasant smell. Prior to the 1920s, benzene was frequently used as an industrial solvent, especially for degreasing metal. As its toxicity became obvious, other solvents replaced benzene in applications that directly exposed the user to benzene.
Benzene was also used to initially decaffeinate coffee by German importer Lugwig Roselius in 1903. This lead to the production of Sanka, -ka for kaffein, but later discontinued the use of benzene.
As a gasoline additive, benzene increases the octane rating and reduces knocking. As a result, gasoline often contained several percent benzene before the 1950s, when tetraethyl lead replaced it as the most widely-used antiknock additive. However, with the global phaseout of leaded gasoline, benzene has made a comeback as a gasoline additive in some nations. In the United States, concern over its negative health effects and the possibility of benzene’s entering the groundwater have led to stringent regulation of gasoline’s benzene content, with values around 1% typical. European gasoline specifications now contain the same 1% limit on benzene content.
By far the largest use of benzene is as an intermediate to make other chemicals. The most widely-produced derivatives of benzene are styrene, which is used to make polymers and plastics, phenol for resins and adhesives (via cumene), and cyclohexane, which is used in Nylon manufacture. Smaller amounts of benzene are used to make some types of rubbers, lubricants, dyes, detergents, drugs, explosives and pesticides.
In laboratory research, toluene is now often substituted for benzene because of health concerns.
[From Wikipedia]