Reciprocal Net Site sponsor
   Site Info    |    Search
Formic acid - Reciprocal Net Common Molecule Log in
You will need to download and install a Java plug-in in order to view this applet. Download Sun's Java plug-in from here.
TIP > Click and drag your mouse inside the applet above to rotate the molecule in 3-D. Applet instructions...

Switch to another visualization applet:

> miniJaMM open in new window...
- JaMM1
- JaMM2

Formic acid

Formic acid is a colorless liquid with a pungent and penetrating odor with a sour taste.

Chemical Formula: C1H2O2
Layman's explanation: Formic Acid, also known as methanoic acid and hydrogencarboxylic acid, is the simplest organic acid. It is a colorless, toxic, corrosive liquid with a pungent, penetrating odor. In nature, it is found in the stings and bites of many insects of the order hymenoptera, including bees and ants. The principal use of formic acid is as a preservative and antibacterial agent in livestock feed. The largest single use of formic acid is as a silage additive in Europe, but this market hardly exists in the United States. When sprayed on fresh hay or other silage, it arrests certain decay processes and causes the feed to retain its nutritive value longer. In the poultry industry, it is sometimes added to silage to kill salmonella bacteria. It is also used in textile dyeing, leather tanning, as a solvent, in electroplating processes, in the manufacturing of lacquers, glass, vinyl resin plasticizers, and formate esters (for flavor and fragrance) and in the manufacture of fumigants. Formic acid is a strong reducing agent, and may act both as an acid and as an aldehyde because the carboxyl is bound to a hydrogen rather than an alkyl group.
Keywords: fumigant, organic acid

Reciprocal Net site software 0.9.1-50, copyright (c) 2002-2009, The Trustees of Indiana University
Files and data presented via this software are property of their respective owners.
Reciprocal Net is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation as part of the National Science Digital Library project. NSDL