A polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon compound containing five fused rings, used as an intermediate in chemical synthesis and found in coal tar.
From acenaphth- (from acenaphthene) + '-ylene' (chemical suffix for unsaturated hydrocarbons with double bonds). The term represents a dehydrogenated form of acenaphthene.
Acenaphthylene is one of 16 compounds the EPA calls PAHs—polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons—and they're created whenever anything burns, from cigarettes to car engines, making them inescapable pollutants in modern air that scientists track like chemical fingerprints of combustion.
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