Questions tagged [carboxylic-acids]

I am wondering what is the simplest tricarboxylic acid that can be isolated in a pure form. Would it be methanetricarboxylic acid or ethane-1,1,2-tricarboxylic acid or maybe even longer chain is required to make the compound stable?

I've heard some people say that benzoic acid has a $+\ce{M}$ effect due to the benzene ring which destabilizes the conjugate base. Also, this would be the dominating factor over the weak $-\ce{I}$ effect of the phenyl ring. This makes sense and also…