noun
- Plural of carbanion; organic ions in which a carbon atom carries a negative charge and an unshared pair of electrons.
Usage: chemistry; technical term used in organic chemistry and biochemistry
Examples
- Carbanions are important intermediates in many organic synthesis reactions.
- The stability of carbanions depends on the nature of the groups attached to the negatively charged carbon.
- Grignard reagents generate carbanions that can attack electrophilic carbon atoms.
- Carbanions are nucleophiles and readily react with electrophiles in substitution reactions.
- The formation of carbanions is a key step in deprotonation reactions of weak carbon acids.