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:
“Oh, what a catastrophe for man when he cut himself off from the rhythm of the year, from his unison with the sun and the earth. Oh, what a catastrophe, what a maiming of love when it was a personal, merely personal feeling, taken away from the rising and the setting of the sun, and cut off from the magic connection of the solstice and the equinox!”
—D.H. (David Herbert)