Mellitic anhydride, the
anhydride
An acid anhydride is a type of chemical compound derived by the removal of water molecules from an acid (chemistry), acid.
In organic chemistry, organic acid anhydrides contain the functional group . Organic acid anhydrides often form when one ...
of
mellitic acid, is an
organic compound
Some chemical authorities define an organic compound as a chemical compound that contains a carbon–hydrogen or carbon–carbon bond; others consider an organic compound to be any chemical compound that contains carbon. For example, carbon-co ...
with the formula C
12O
9.
Containing no other elements (e.g., hydrogen) besides carbon and oxygen, mellitic anhydride is an
oxide
An oxide () is a chemical compound containing at least one oxygen atom and one other element in its chemical formula. "Oxide" itself is the dianion (anion bearing a net charge of −2) of oxygen, an O2− ion with oxygen in the oxidation st ...
of
carbon
Carbon () is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalence, tetravalent—meaning that its atoms are able to form up to four covalent bonds due to its valence shell exhibiting 4 ...
(
oxocarbon
In chemistry, an oxocarbon or oxide of carbon is a chemical compound consisting only of carbon and oxygen. The simplest and most common oxocarbons are carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (). Many other stable (practically if not thermodynamica ...
), and, along with
CO2,
CO, and
C3O2, is one of the only four that are reasonably stable under standard conditions. It is a white sublimable solid, apparently obtained by
Justus Liebig and
Friedrich Wöhler
Friedrich Wöhler Royal Society of London, FRS(For) HonFRSE (; 31 July 180023 September 1882) was a German chemist known for his work in both organic chemistry, organic and inorganic chemistry, being the first to isolate the chemical elements be ...
in 1830 in their study of
mellite ("honey stone") and has the
empirical formula
In chemistry, the empirical formula of a chemical compound is the simplest whole number ratio of atoms present in a compound. A simple example of this concept is that the empirical formula of sulfur monoxide, or SO, is simply SO, as is the empir ...
C
4O
3. The substance was properly characterized in 1913 by H. Meyer and K. Steiner. It retains the aromatic character of the benzene ring.
References
Phthalic anhydrides
Oxocarbons
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