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Orthoacetic acid or ethane-1,1,1-triol is an hypothetical organic compound with formula C
2H
6O
3 or H3C-C(OH)3. It would be a triple alcohol with the ethane backbone. Since the hydroxyl groups could lose protons, it can also be viewed as an ortho acid.
Contents
Orthoacetic acid is believed to be impossible to isolate, since it would readily decompose into acetic acid and water. It may have a fleeting existence in aqueous solutions of acetic acid.
Orthoacetate anions
In theory, removal of one to three protons from the hydroxyls would produce the anions H
5C
2O−
3 (dihydrogenorthoacetate), H
4C
2O2−
3 (hydrogenorthoacetate), and H
3C
2O3−
3 (orthoacetate). One author claims that sodium orthoacetate is formed by reaction of acetylene and sodium hydroxide at 220 °C:
Orthoacetate esters
There are many stable organic compounds with the trivalent moiety H3C-C(-O-)3, which are formally esters of orthoacetic acid and therefore called orthoacetates. They include trimethyl orthoacetate and triethyl orthoacetate, which are commercially available.