Acid plus acid

2005/01/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Kimika

In a laboratory in California, the most acidic acid that has been seen so far has been synthesized. It is a carboranic acid whose formula is H (CHB11Cl11).

To get an idea, it is a million times more acid than concentrated sulfuric acid, that is, it has a million facilities to release protons. But one of the researchers who has produced this acid, Christopher Reed, has explained that it is not corrosive because it is so acidic. Normally the corrosion is the ion that remains after the loss of the proton of the acid, for example, after the loss of a proton of hydrofluoric acid, remains the fluoride, which attacks the silicon of the glass. This makes the superacids very difficult to store.

But carboran acids, in general, are not corrosive. The key is in the group of carborans: eleven boron atoms and one carbon atoms are arranged in the form of ikosaedro, polyhedron of 20 sides, forming a very stable structure. And, therefore, this group has no tendency to react.