Formic acid (also called methanoic acid) is the simplest carboxylic acid. Its chemical formula is HCOOH or HCO2H. It is an important intermediate in chemical synthesis and occurs naturally, most notably in some ants. Its name comes from the Latin word for ant, formica, referring to its early isolation by the distillation of ant bodies. Esters, salts, and the anions derived from formic acid are referred to as formates.
Properties
Formic acid is a colorless liquid having a highly pungent, penetrating odor at room temperature. It is miscible with water and most polar organicsolvents, and is somewhat soluble in hydrocarbons. In hydrocarbons and in the vapor phase, it consists of hydrogen-bondeddimers rather than individual molecules. Owing to its tendency to hydrogen-bond, gaseous formic acid does not obey the ideal gas law. Solid formic acid (two polymorphs) consists of an effectively endless network of hydrogen-bonded formic acid molecules. This relatively complicated compound also forms a low-boiling azeotrope with water (22.4%) and liquid formic acid also tends to supercool.
This page provides supplementary chemical data on formic acid.
Material Safety Data Sheet
The handling of this chemical may incur notable safety precautions. It is highly recommend that you seek the Material Safety Datasheet (MSDS) for this chemical from a reliable source and follow its directions.
Table data obtained from CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 44th ed. The "(s)" notation indicates temperature of solid/vapor equilibrium. Otherwise the data is temperature of liquid/vapor equilibrium.
Distillation data
Spectral data
Safety data
References
↑ Morrison, Robert Thornton and Boyd, Robert Neilson, Organic Chemistry, 2nd ed. Allyn and Bacon 1972, p 596
↑ Lange's Handbook of Chemistry, 10th ed. pp 1669-1674
↑ Thornton Schnabel, Marfa Cortada, Jadran Vrabec, Santiago Lago, Hans Hasse. "Molecular Model for Formic Acid adusted to Vapor-Liquid Equilibrium"(PDF). Insitut für Technische Thermodynamik und Thermische Verfahrenstechnik (Institute for Technical Thermodynamic and Thermal Process Engineering), Universität Stuttgart. Retrieved 3 May 2007.
safe ants) and ants from other colonies ...Credit. Current Biology ... Anger ants enough, and they spray formic acid at one another ... (A telltale sign of incoming formic acid is the bending of an ant’s bulbous end segment known as the “gaster.”) ... ....
Dear Doctor...Dear Reader. Your question is one for the ages – literally ... So does the quest for a cure ... The body metabolizes these into toxic substances such as formaldehyde and formic acid, which can add to hangover misery ... The only certain cure is time ... .
Chemicals like formaldehyde, an embalming fluid, essentially, used in pathology labs to preserve tissue and then from formaldehyde it goes down into formic acid. "Formic acid is a very nasty acid ...
Advertisement ... Both ethanol (the type of alcohol that’s normally found in alcoholic beverages) and methanol are broken down by the body, but in the case of methanol, this results in the production of formaldehyde, formic acid, and formates ... .
Do you know what's in it? Jag cz/Shutterstock ... The methanol was believed to be in contaminated drinks ... Methanol, unlike ethanol, is processed by our bodies to first form formaldehyde and then formic acid (formate) ... Dotmiller1986/Shutterstock ... .
The enzymes that helps bodies break down and eliminate regular alcohol found in beer, wine and spirits react differently with methanol, and produce substances called formaldehyde and formic acid – which is toxic to human cells.
By contrast, methanol is metabolised into formaldehyde (a chemical used in industrial glues and for embalming corpses) and then to formic acid (the chemical in some ant bites that makes them hurt so much).
'Similar to alcohol it is oxidised in the body, but the breakdown of methanol forms a strong and dangerous acid — formic acid' ... This avoids the process of methanol ultimately metabolising as formic acid, he added.
The acid that forms with methanol is what caused the most harm, he said. "It's the formic acid that causes so many problems, so this is an agent that actually kills cells and as a result it causes really quite significant damage to the body." ... ....
Salt, fat, formic acid, heat ... To account for this, the team used flour and formic acid instead of water. The formic acid breaks up the giant stacks of spirals–or helices–that make up starch ... formic acid.
