How did Linus Pauling’s work contribute to the study of benzene?

Linus Pauling significantly advanced the understanding of benzene by applying the valence-bond theory and the concept of resonance to its molecular structure.

In 1931, Pauling proposed that benzene does not exist as a pair of rapidly interconverting structures, as previously suggested by August Kekulé, but rather as a single, stable resonance hybrid. By 1933, working with George W. Wheland, Pauling constructed a wave function for benzene that was a linear combination of five canonical structures: the two traditional Kekulé structures and three Dewar structures.312

This model explained several key chemical properties:
* Stability: The resonance hybrid is more stable and has lower energy than any of the individual contributing structures.31
* Bonding: It accounts for the delocalization of six $\pi$ electrons over the entire ring, resulting in equivalent carbon-carbon bonds with a bond order of 1.5.12
* Geometry: It correctly predicts the planar, hexagonal structure with equal bond lengths of 1.40 angstroms.12

Pauling’s work, notably presented in his treatise The Nature of the Chemical Bond, established resonance as a fundamental tool in quantum chemistry.