Acylium Cations, Anions, and Radicals
Acylium ions are cations of the formula RCO+. The oxygen and carbon are linked by a triple bond. Such species are common reactive intermediates, for example, in the Friedel-Crafts acylations also in many other organic reactions such as the Hayashi rearrangement. Salts containing acylium ions can be generated by removal of the halide from acyl halides:
- RC(O)Cl + SbCl5 → SbCl6
The C-O distance in these cations is near 1.1 angstrom, even shorter than that in carbon monoxide. Acylium cations are characteristic fragments observed in EI-mass spectra of ketones.
Acyl anions and acyl radicals are very rare. Organolithium compounds with Li-C(O)R linkages are not well studied.
Read more about this topic: Acyl
Famous quotes containing the word radicals:
“Generally young men are regarded as radicals. This is a popular misconception. The most conservative persons I ever met are college undergraduates. The radicals are the men past middle life.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)