Oxocarbon anion

In

The most common oxocarbon anions are carbonate, CO2−3, and oxalate, C₂O2−4. There are however a large number of stable anions in this class, including several ones that have research or industrial use. There are also many unstable anions, like CO−2 and CO⁴⁻, that have a fleeting existence during some chemical reactions; and many hypothetical species, like CO4−4, that have been the subject of theoretical studies but have yet to be observed.

Stable oxocarbon anions form

The carbonate ion has a trigonal planar structure, point group D_3h. The three C-O bonds have the same length of 136 pm and the 3 O-C-O angles are 120°. The carbon atom has 4 pairs of valence electrons, which shows that the molecule obeys the octet rule. This is one factor that contributes to the high stability of the ion, which occurs in rocks such as limestone. The electronic structure is described by two main theories which are used to show how the 4 electron pairs are distributed in a molecule that only has 3 C-O bonds.

With

In each canonical form there are two single bonds one double bond. The three canonical forms contribute equally to the resonance hybrid, so the three bond C-O bonds have the same length.

With molecular orbital theory the 3-fold axis is designated as the z axis of the molecule. Three σ bonds are formed overlap of the s, p_x and p_y orbitals on the carbon atom with a p orbital on each oxygen atom. In addition, a delocalized π bond is made by overlap of the p_z orbital on the carbon atom with the p_z orbital on each oxygen atom which is perpendicular to the plane of the molecule.

Note that the same bonding schemes may be applied the

Similarly, the two-fold symmetrical structure of a carboxylate group,CO^–
₂, may be described as a resonance hybrid of two canonical forms in valence bond theory, or with 2 σ bonds and a delocalized π bond in molecular orbital theory.

Related compounds

Oxocarbon acids

An oxocarbon anion C
_xOⁿ⁻
_y can be seen as the result of removing all

Hydrogenated anions

For each oxocarbon anion C
_xOⁿ⁻
_y there are in principle n−1 partially hydrogenated anions with formulas H
_kC
_xO^(n−k)−
_y, where k ranges from 1 to n−1. These anions are generally indicated by the prefixes "hydrogen"-, "dihydrogen"-, "trihydrogen"-, etc. Some of them, however, have special names: hydrogencarbonate HCO⁻
₃ is commonly called

binoxalate

.

The hydrogenated anions may be stable even if the fully protonated acid is not (as is the case of bicarbonate).

List of oxocarbon anions

Here is an incomplete list of the known or conjectured oxocarbon anions

Diagram	Formula	Name	Acid	Anhydride	Neutralized
	:CO2− 2	carbonite	C(OH)2 (carbonous acid)	CO	CO2
	CO2− 3	carbonate	CH2O3	CO2	CO3
	CO2− 4	peroxocarbonate		CO3	CO4
	CO4− 4	orthocarbonate	C(OH)4 methanetetrol	CO2	CO4
	C 2O2− 2	acetylenediolate	C2H2O2 acetylenediol		C2O2
	C 2O2− 4	oxalate	C2H2O4	C2O3, C4O6	C2O4
	C 2O2− 5	dicarbonate	C2H2O5	C2O4
	C 2O2− 6	peroxodicarbonate
	C 3O2− 3	deltate	C3O(OH)2		C3O3
	C 3O2− 5	mesoxalate	C3H2O5
	C 4O2− 4	acetylenedicarboxylate	C4H2O4
	C 4O2− 4	squarate	C4O2(OH)2		C4O4
	C 4O2− 6	dioxosuccinate	C4H2O6
	C 5O2− 5	croconate	C5O3(OH)2		C5O5
	C 5O4− 8	methanetetracarboxylate	C5H4O8
	C 6O2− 6	rhodizonate	C4O4(COH)2		C6O6
	C 6O4− 6	benzoquinonetetraolate; THBQ anion	(CO)2(COH)4 THBQ		C6O6
	C 6O6− 6	benzenehexolate	C6(OH)6 benzenehexol		C6O6
	C 6O4− 8	ethylenetetracarboxylate	C6H4O8	C6O6
	C 8O4− 9	furantetracarboxylate	C8H4O9	C8O7
	C 10O4− 10	benzoquinonetetracarboxylate	C 10H 4O 10	C 10O 8
	C 12O6− 12	mellitate	C6(COOH)6	C12O9

Several other oxocarbon anions have been detected in trace amounts, such as C
₆O⁻
₆, a singly ionized version of rhodizonate.[9]

See also

• Oxocarbon
• Silicate
• Sodium percarbonate (actually a carbonate perhydrate)

References