Also known as 2-propanone.

structural formula for acetone:


   H        O
    \      //          acetone
H -- C -- C            (C3H6O)
    /      \
   H        C -- H
           / \
          H   H

A colorless, flammable liquid which is used as a solvent (it is most familiar as the solvent in nail polish remover). The simplest ketone (it is also known as 2-propanone), it mixes with water, ethyl alcohol, and most oils. It melts at -95.4 C°. and boils at 56.2 C°. It is naturally found in very tiny quantities in the body fluids and tissues of healthy people and in somewhat larger amounts in people suffering from diabetes or starvation.

From the BioTech Dictionary at http://biotech.icmb.utexas.edu/. For further information see the BioTech homenode.

Ac"e*tone (#), n. [See Acetic.] Chem.

A volatile liquid consisting of three parts of carbon, six of hydrogen, and one of oxygen; pyroacetic spirit, -- obtained by the distillation of certain acetates, or by the destructive distillation of citric acid, starch, sugar, or gum, with quicklime.

⇒ The term in also applied to a number of bodies of similar constitution, more frequently called ketones. See Ketone.

 

© Webster 1913.

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