Neutral and base?

Question

Why benzene is neutral and piridin is base?

Answer 1

pyridine is base because it has N (nitrogen atom) in the ring. N has a lone pair of electrons and it can donate the lone pair to the acid (hydrogen ion).
There are no lone pairs in benzene - so it isnt a base. Benzene cant donate its electrons from double bonds to acids, because this double bonds form resonans. Pyrrole isnt a base as well, because the lone pair of electrons of the nitrogen atom becomes delocalized in the aromatic ring.

Answer 2

They might have already said this but the reason why piridine is considered as a base is because of the presence of the N (nitrogen) atom in the ring. This nitrogen atom has lone pair of electrons available for donation/transfer. This being the case makes the piridine an electron donor, hence a base. On the other hand, benzene as an aromatic ring does not contain any lone pair of elctrons in its structure. No such elctrons available for sharing and transfer can be found on the benzene ring since hence it has a net neutral charge. In other words, it is neither an elctron donor nor electron acceptor, hence it is neutral.

Hope this helps. =)

Answer 3

due to the lone pair of electrons present in ~N in piridine . it can donate the lone pair of electrons to acid. but benzene has no lone pair of electrons