Mellitic acid, also called graphitic acid or benzenehexacarboxylic acid, is an acid first discovered in 1799 by Martin Heinrich Klaproth in the mineralmellite (honeystone), which is the aluminiumsalt of the acid.[5] It crystallizes in fine silky needles and is soluble in water and alcohol.
Structure
The stable conformation of this molecule has the carboxylic acid groups rotated out of the plane of the central benzene ring. The molecule adopts a propeller-like conformation in which the tilt of each carboxylic acid group relative to the central benzene ring varies due to intramolecular hydrogen bonding.[2]
It is a very stable compound; chlorine, concentrated nitric acid and hydriodic acid do not react with it. It is decomposed, on dry distillation, into carbon dioxide and pyromellitic acid, C10H6O8; when distilled with lime it gives carbon dioxide and benzene. Long digestion of the acid with an excess of phosphorus pentachloride forms the acid chloride, which crystallizes in needles, and melts at 190 °C. By heating the ammonium salt of the acid to 150–160 °C while ammonia is evolved, a mixture of paramide (mellimide, molecular formula C 6(CONHCO) 3), and ammonium euchroate is obtained. The mixture may be separated by dissolving out the ammonium euchroate with water. Paramide is a white amorphous powder, insoluble in water and alcohol.
The high stability of mellitic acid salts and their presence as an endproduct of the oxidation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are present in the solar system, make them a possible organic substance in Martian soil.[7]
^ abBart, J. C. J. (1968). "The crystal structure of a modification of hexaphenylbenzene". Acta Crystallographica Section B. 24 (10): 1277–1287. doi:10.1107/S0567740868004176.
^Kurmoo M, Estournes C, Oka Y, Kumagai H, Inoue K (2005) Inorganic Chemistry volume 44, page 217
Further reading
Henry Enfield Roscoe, Carl Scholemmer, "Mellitene Group", "A Treatise on Chemistry: V.III: The Chemistry of the Hydrocarbons and their Derivatives on Organic Chemistry: P.V:529. D. Appleton and Co. (1889).