Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs, also polyaromatic hydrocarbons) are hydrocarbons—organic compounds containing only carbon and hydrogen—that are composed of multiple aromatic rings (organic rings in which the electrons are delocalized). Formally, the class is further defined as lacking further branching substituents on these ring structures. Polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PNAs) are a subset of PAHs that have fused aromatic rings, that is, rings that share one or more sides. The simplest such chemicals are naphthalene, having two aromatic rings, and the three-ring compounds anthracene and phenanthrene.

PAHs are neutral, nonpolar molecules found in coal and in tar deposits. They are produced as well by incomplete combustion of organic matter (e.g., in engines and incinerators, when biomass burns in forest fires, etc.).

PAHs may also be abundant in the universe, and are conjectured to have formed as early as the first couple of billion years after the Big Bang, in association with formation of new stars and exoplanets. Some studies suggest that PAHs account for a significant percentage of all carbon in the universe, and PAHs are discussed as possible starting materials for abiologic syntheses of materials required by the earliest forms of life.

The tricyclic species phenanthrene and anthracene represent the starting members of the PAHs. Smaller molecules, such as benzene, are not PAHs, and PAHs are not generally considered to contain heteroatoms or carry substituents.

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