CARBANION

any member of a class of organic compounds in which a negative electrical charge is located predominantly on a carbon atom. Carbanions are formally derived from neutral organic molecules by removal of positively charged atoms or groups of atoms, and they are important chiefly as chemical intermediatesthat is, as substances used in the preparation of other substances. Important industrial products, including useful plastics, are made using carbanions. The simplest carbanion, the methide ion (CH-3 ), is derived from the organic compound methane (CH4) by a loss of a proton (hydrogen ion, H+) as shown in the following chemical equation: in which the symbols C and H represent, respectively, carbon and hydrogen atoms; the subscripts indicate the numbers of atoms of each kind included in the molecules; the superscript plus and minus signs indicate, respectively, positive and negative charges; and the double arrows indicate that the reaction shown can proceed in either the forward or the reverse direction, a condition known as reversibility. Additional reading A basic reference is D.J. Cram, Fundamentals of Carbanion Chemistry (1965). Gerhard L. Closs The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica