[stulti]

Anyone know how I would go about making benzene at home? I want to try something and I need some benzene to do it. I realize this is a somewhat hazardous thing to handle.

Any help would be great.

thanks

[limpet chicken]

What are you trying to do? could you not use toluene or xylene? both are similar in properties to benzene, as far as a solvent goes, if its a reactant though, you could try decarboxylating a benzoate salt, like calcium benzoate or sodium benzoate, commonly available as a food preservative with common decarboxylations, such as CaO and distilling off benzene.

Careful though, its a potent leukaemogen, highly toxic, so make damn sure you have both an efficient hood, and a fresh organic vapor cartridge in your gas mask, don't get it on your skin either, and use a very efficient distillation setup, benzene isn't something to mess about with carelessly.