Question

what is the simplest tricarboxylic acid that can be isolated in a pure form. Would it be methanetricarboxylic acid or ethane-1,1,2-tricarboxylic acid or maybe even longer chain is required to make the compound stable?

Answer 1

The simplest stable tricarboxylic acid that can be isolated in pure form is trichloroacetic acid, as smaller chain acids like methanetricarboxylic acid would be unstable.

Step-by-step explanation:

The simplest tricarboxylic acid that can be isolated in a pure form is not methanetricarboxylic acid because such a compound would have an unstable structure due to the small size of the methane backbone trying to support three carboxyl groups. The carbon chain needs to be longer to stabilize the compound.

Ethane-1,1,2-tricarboxylic acid is also not stable. The simplest and stable tricarboxylic acid is trichloroacetic acid, which is more stable than its shorter chain counterparts due to the presence of chlorine atoms that help to stabilize the molecule.