Magic acid (FSO3H-SbF5), is a superacid consisting of a mixture, most commonly in a 1:1 molar ratio, of fluorosulfonic acid (HSO3F) and antimony pentafluoride (SbF5). This conjugate Bronsted-Lewis superacid system was developed in the 1960s by the George Olah lab at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, and has been used to stabilize carbocations and hypercoordinated carbonium ions in liquid media. Magic Acid and other superacids are also used to catalyze isomerization of saturated hydrocarbons, and have been shown to protonate even weak bases, including methane, xenon, halogens, and molecular hydrogen.
Famous quotes containing the word magic:
“The most refined skills of color printing, the intricate techniques of wide-angle photography, provide us pictures of trivia bigger and more real than life. We forget that we see trivia and notice only that the reproduction is so good. Man fulfils his dream and by photographic magic produces a precise image of the Grand Canyon. The result is not that he adores nature or beauty the more. Instead he adores his camera—and himself.”
—Daniel J. Boorstin (b. 1914)