Carbenium ion

A carbenium ion is a positive ion with the structure RR′R″C⁺, that is, a chemical species with one trivalent carbon that bears a +1 electric charge.

In older literature the name carbonium ion was used for this class, but now it refers exclusively to another family of carbocations, the carbonium ions, where the charged carbon is pentavalent. The current definitions were proposed by the chemist George Andrew Olah in 1972, and are now widely accepted.

Carbenium ions are generally highly reactive due to having an incomplete octet of electrons; however, certain carbenium ions, such as the tropylium ion, are relatively stable due to the positive charge being delocalised between the carbon atoms.

Carbenium ions are classified as primary, secondary, or tertiary depending on whether the number of carbon atoms bonded to the ionized carbon is 1, 2, or 3. (Ions with zero carbons attached to the ionized carbon, such as methenium, CH+
3, are usually included in the primary class).

Stability typically increases with the number of alkyl groups bonded to the charge-bearing carbon. Tertiary carbocations are more stable (and form more readily) than secondary carbocations, because they are stabilized by hyperconjugation. Primary carbocations are highly unstable. Therefore, reactions such as the S_N1 reaction and the E1 elimination reaction normally do not occur if a primary carbenium would be formed.

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