bbartlog - 27-4-2010 at 10:11
I was searching for information on the calcium salts of glycolic acid when I came across this paper: http://www.springerlink.com/content/a28nu813507735l6/
I see that here, 'calcium glycolate' is used to refer to what you get when calcium reacts with ethylene glycol, that is,
Ca-(O-CH2-CH2-OH)2
Which does seem pretty reasonable. But then what am I supposed to call the calcium salt of glycolic acid? Is this a case where this system of
nomenclature just doesn't work, and I need to say something like 'calcium-(bis-hydroxy)-acetate'? I'm not likely to find a lot of information *that*
way even if I can get the name exactly right...
not_important - 27-4-2010 at 17:07
Glycolic acid, calcium salt
calcium salt of glycolic acid
It's a problem from the old terminology and trivial names. Alcoholate is either an alcohol that is part of a crystal structure, or the salt of an
alcohol AKA an alkoxide such as sodium methoxide. Glycol is an older naming of diols, ethylene glycol is an alcohol thus its alkoxides are also known
as glycolates from that meaning of alcoholates. And glycolic acid derives its name from glycol, trivial name for ethylene glycol, compounding the
confusion.