hydronium Chem.
(haɪˈdrəʊnɪəm)
[a. G. hydronium (A. Hantzsch 1907, in Zeitschr. f. phys. Chemie LXI. 306), contraction of hydroxonium.]
A name for the hydrated hydrogen ion (usu. represented as H3O+).
| 1908 Jrnl. Chem. Soc. XCIV. ii. 15 Just as a molecule of ammonia may attach itself to a hydrogen ion, forming the ammonium ion NH·4 , so it is supposed that a molecule of water may similarly attach itself, forming the ‘hydronium’ ion H3O·, so that a solution of a little water in sulphuric acid is a dissociated solution of hydronium sulphate. 1937 F. C. Whitmore Org. Chem. 341 The effective catalyst is the hydronium ion, (H3O)+. 1940 Jrnl. Chem. Soc. 1410 When the hydrogen ion is considered to occur (in aqueous solution or in a compound) in the form [H3O]+, it is advisable to call it the hydronium ion (not hydroxonium ion). 1956 Jrnl. Amer. Chem. Soc. LXXVIII. 5999 (heading) The vibrational spectrum of the hydronium ion in hydronium perchlorate. 1959 Nomencl. Inorg. Chem. (I.U.P.A.C.) 26 The ion H3O+..is to be known as the oxonium ion when it is believed to have this constitution, as for example in H3O+ClO-4 , oxonium perchlorate. The widely used term hydronium should be kept for the cases where it is wished to denote an indefinite degree of hydration of the proton, as, for example, in aqueous solution. [The latter sentence is dropped in ed. 2 (1971).] 1966 Mineral. Mag. XXXV. 1071 The existence of the individual H3O+ pyramidal complex, called the hydronium ion, or sometimes the hydroxonium or oxonium ion, in crystalline substances is a well-established fact. |