Benzene diazonium chloride, on treatment with which of the following gives benzene?

CH₃CH₂OH

The correct answer is option 2. \(CH_3CH_2OH\).

In organic chemistry, arenes are the aromatic hydrocarbons which are cyclic unsaturated compounds which consist of strikingly different chemical properties as compared to conjugated alkenes or polyenes and thus categorized as a separate class of hydrocarbons. The arenes and substituted arenes are highly stabilized by resonance. The simplest member of arene is benzene whose molecular formula is \(C_6H_6\) and is structurally represented as follows:

Preparation of benzene from benzene diazonium chloride:

When benzene diazonium chloride reacts with ethanol it forms benzene and acetaldehyde along with the removal of nitrogen gas and hydrogen chloride. It is a single step nucleophilic substitution reaction which proceeds as follows: