Carbonic acid (H2CO3) has a claim to be the most-widely synthesized compound of all budding chemists as it is produced by mixing vinegar and baking soda. More-experienced chemists recognize H2CO3 as an unstable material that is present in terrestrial systems, including the human body, only in submicromolar concentrations. However, the initial isolation of H2CO3 was carried out not by chemists but by two physicists with chemical interests and under distinctly non-biological, non-terrestrial experimental conditions. The history of this first synthesis and the acid's isolation will be reviewed in this ACS presentation, the discovery spectrum will be shown, and the subsequent events and chemistry will be described, including the author's minor contribution to the story.

Investigation into the first isolation of carbonic acid

249th National Meeting (2015)

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