Basic beryllium acetate explained

Basic beryllium acetate is the chemical compound with the formula Be₄O(O₂CCH₃)₆. This compound adopts a distinctive structure, but it has no applications and has been only lightly studied. It is a colourless solid that is soluble in organic solvents.

Preparation

It can be prepared by treating basic beryllium carbonate with hot acetic acid.

Basic beryllium acetate is insoluble in water but soluble in chloroform, consistent with it being nonpolar. It melts and sublimes in a vacuum without decomposition.^[1]

Structure

"Basic acetates" consist of an ensemble of metal centres bound to a central oxide ion, and a collection of acetate ligands. Basic beryllium acetate has a tetrahedral Be₄O⁶⁺ core with acetates (CH₃CO₂⁻) spanning each of the pairs of Be²⁺ centres.^{[2] [3]} It consists of interlocking six-membered Be₂O₃C rings. The structure is relevant to its considerable stability (the compound is distillable at 330 °C).

Uses

The solubility of the salt in organic solvents (chloroform) is useful to extract and purify beryllium rich fractions for many purposes.Basic beryllium acetate single crystals can easily be grown and are helpful to align x-ray diffractometers and also as a reference in protein crystallography.

See also

• Basic zinc acetate
• Basic beryllium nitrate

References

1. Book: Moeller . T. . 1950 . Basic Beryllium Derivatives of Organic Acids . Audrieth . L. F. . Inorganic Syntheses, Volume 3 . 3 . 4–9 . . 10.1002/9780470132340.ch2 . 978-0-470-13234-0.
2. Bragg . W. H. . 1923 . Crystal Structure of Basic Beryllium Acetate . . 111. 2790. 532 . 1923Natur.111..532B . 10.1038/111532a0. William Henry Bragg . free .
3. Pauling . L. . Sherman . J. . 1934 . The Structure of the Carboxyl Group. II. The Crystal Structure of Basic Beryllium Acetate . . 20 . 6 . 340–5 . 1934PNAS...20..340P . 10.1073/pnas.20.6.340. 16587899 . 1076415 . Linus Pauling . free .