Talk:Phosphorous acid
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
Phosphorous acid is within the scope of WikiProject Chemicals, a daughter project of WikiProject Chemistry, which aims to improve Wikipedia's coverage of chemicals. To participate, help improve this article or visit the project page for details on the project. | ||
|
Article Grading: The article has not been rated for quality and/or importance yet. Please rate the article and then leave comments here to explain the ratings and/or to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article.. |
|||
Is the phosphite H of phosphorous acid not ionisable? the corresponding H in the corresponding esters (such as diethyl phosphite) can be easily removed with bases such as NaH, in a preparatively useful manner. it isn't too much of a stretch to think the same applies to phosphorous acid. Xcomradex 22:57, 25 June 2006 (UTC)
Ah ha. i am correct, eg. trisodium phosphite CAS# 22620-95-7. removed comment from main page. Xcomradex 23:01, 25 June 2006 (UTC)
- My two-cents worth - the hazard/flaw in this style of thinking is that HP(O)(OEt)2 is charge-neutral whereas [HPO3]2- is a dianion. Charge strongly affects pKa. Using your logic, the acidity of MeOH would anticipate that OH- is ionizable, i.e. that O2- would be stable in soln. It is plausible that the proton in [HPO3]2- is ionizable, but the existence of Na3[PO3] does not prove this. For one thing, what would this stuff be soluble in? Na2O and Na3P are also known, but they have no solution chemistry.--Smokefoot 00:48, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
Yeah i had thought as much too. but a quick look at trisodium phosphite shows it is prepared industrially by treating white P with NaOH, which implies deprotonation occurs, if not directly then via the phosphite tautomer. these conditions are much more mild than i would have expected, so i'm starting to think the phosphite tautomer is directly involved. incidently, patents exist for preparing aqueous H3PO3 from aqueous Na3PO3 (eg. US4278647) so the compound of sufficent utility to have attracted commercial interest, and it has aqueous solution chemistry. my two cents anyway. Xcomradex 23:30, 28 June 2006 (UTC)
- Xcomradex: amazing and nifty chemical factoid. Like you say, if NaOH can be used, then something is deprotonatable.Thanks for taking the time to comment. Best wishes,--Smokefoot 23:47, 28 June 2006 (UTC)
No worries, thanks for trying to keep me honest. its good to see stuff isn't getting put in the wiki chemistry section without people looking over it. i see you do a fair bit of editing too, good luck. Xcomradex 06:10, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
