Acidity of the Carbonate Radical

Abstract

A pulse radiolysis study which uses a flow system to irradiate mixtures of H2CO3 and HCO3- within 50 ms of their formation has demonstrated that the carbonate radical is a strong acid, pKa < 0, contrary to published reports of high pKas. The rate constant for reaction of the hydroxyl radical with H2CO3 is 7 × 104 M-1 s-1 at about 5 °C.