Talk:Carbocation

Clarification

The introduction puts forward the following definition:

A carbocation (IPA pronunciation: [kɑ(r)'bəʊkæt'aɪ.ɒn]) is an ion with a positively-charged carbon atom.

In the definition section another definition is put forward:

In present day chemistry a carbocation is any positively charged carbon atom.

The first definition would accept a any polyatomic ion with a charged carbon atom as a carbocation... perhaps if "an ion with" is removed it would be more clear?

Mergers need to be made!

• explain why you posted the merge notices without discussion here and why did you not sign your post. V8rik 20:48, 15 February 2007 (UTC)
• I added links to the other articles and investigated how carbocations are discussed in a bunch of university level textbooks . I hope that clears up the issue. V8rik 21:58, 24 February 2007 (UTC)

Do we need the carbonium ion image?

Do we need the carbonium ion image?. This will only confuse readers who are mostly interested in trivalent carbon. Carbonium ion has its own page. Lets try to limit the information creep. V8rik (talk) 17:23, 11 June 2010 (UTC)

- it is especially confusing since the Definition specifically tells us that "carbonium ion" is an antiquated term that some textbooks cling on to. I would expect to see the title changed to "carbenium ion". Zorgster (talk) 14:54, 10 March 2013 (UTC)

Merge to Carbenium ion

Although carbocations are classified to carbenium ion (R₃C⁺) or carbonium ion (R₅C⁺), this article does not mainly describe R₅C⁺ but R₃C⁺. Therefore, most of contents of this article should be merged to carbenium ion. --Nao1958 (talk) 21:02, 10 February 2013 (UTC)

Hydride affinities

In the hydride affinities section, the stability of various carbocations is shown in a table. What I find strange is that all the bond energies described in this section are given in kcal/mol; this is pretty much never used in chemistry textbooks as a measure of bond strength, they are almost always given in kJ/mol. It is likely that a student could look at this table, fail to note the units, and come away thinking that these affinities are much lower than they actually are; in fact I almost did, until I thought to myself that the energies involved looked a bit small, and only then I noticed the units.

Could someone please convert the table to kJ/mol?

Merge proposal

Carbonium ions (R₅C⁺) and carbenium ions (R₃C⁺) are blended in this article. We have separate articles on carbocations (all diamagnetic carbon-based cations) and its two subsets

• carbenium ions R₃C⁺ (protonated alkenes and protonated carbenes, formally). Classical bonding.
• carbonium ions R₅C⁺ (protonated alkanes, formally).

Recommendation:

1. move most carbenium ion content to the carbenium ion article.
2. move most carbonium ion content to the carbonium ion article with a section on nonclassical carbocations 2-norbonyl (cation and many others)
3. turn this page into a concise summary of these two kinds of cations, keep the "history" and most of the nomenclature here in carbocation.
4. move 2-Norbonyl cation to Norbornyl cation debate to incorporate all that history

--Smokefoot (talk) 15:43, 27 August 2024 (UTC)