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isocyanic acid
Sign in to saveAlso known as cyanic acid, hydrogen cyanate, oxidoazanediidocarbon, HNCO, [C(NH)O], HN=C=O, hydrogen isocyanate, carbimide
chemical compound of structural formula HNCO
Chemical data
- Formula
- CHNO
- Molecular weight
- 43.025 g/mol
- IUPAC name
- isocyanic acid
- SMILES
- C(=N)=O
- InChIKey
- OWIKHYCFFJSOEH-UHFFFAOYSA-N
- XLogP
- 1
- Polar surface area
- 40.9 Ų
- H-bond donors
- 1
- H-bond acceptors
- 2
- Formal charge
- 0
via PubChem
~6 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Isocyanic acid is a chemical compound with the structural formula HNCO, which is often written as H−N=C=O. It is a colourless, volatile and poisonous gas, condensing at 23.5 °C. It is the predominant tautomer and an isomer of cyanic acid (aka. cyanol) (H−O−C≡N), and the monomer of cyanuric acid.
The derived anion of isocyanic acid is the same as the derived anion of cyanic acid, and that anion is [N=C=O], which is called cyanate. The related functional group −N=C=O is isocyanate; it is distinct from cyanate (−O−C≡N), fulminate (−O−N≡C), and nitrile oxide (−C≡N−O).
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “isocyanic acid” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.