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Definition
Methyl formate is the simplest ester and the condensation product of methanol and formic acid. It is liquid under standard pressure between −100 °C and 32 °C. It is a very volatile, highly flammable, and harmful compound. It is used as an insecticide and has been used formerly in refrigeration. It has been detected in the interstellar medium, where it is more abundant than its two isomers, acetic acid CH3COOH and glycolaldehyde CH2OHCHO. It is one of the largest organic molecules detected in comet Hale-Bopp.
History
Brown et al. (1975) detected methyl formate in emission in the spectrum of the Galactic Center source Sagittarius B2. Several emission lines previously assigned to rotationally distorted methane in the Orion molecular cloud were correctly assigned to methyl formate by Ellder et al. (1980), from which it became apparent that the millimeter-wavelength spectrum of molecular clouds typically contain a...
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References and Further Reading
Bockelée-Morvan D, Lis DC, Wink JE, Despois D, Crovisier J, Bachiller R, Benford DJ, Biver N, Colom P, Davies JK, Gérard E, Germain B, Houde M, Mehringer D, Moreno R, Paubert G, Phillips TG, Rauer H (2000) New molecules found in comet C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp). Investigating the link between cometary and interstellar material. Astron Astrophys 353:1101–1114
Brown RD, Crofts JG, Godfrey PD, Gardner FF, Robinson BJ, Whiteoak JB (1975) Discovery of interstellar methyl formate. Astrophys J Lett 197:L29–L31
Ellder J, Friberg P, Hjalmarson Å, Höglund B, Irvine WM, Johansson LEB, Olofsson H, Rydbeck G, Rydbeck OEH, Guèlin M (1980) On methyl formate, methane, and deuterated ammonia in Orion A. Astrophys J Lett 242:L93–L96
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Despois, D. (2014). Methyl Formate. In: Amils, R., et al. Encyclopedia of Astrobiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_1887-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_1887-3
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Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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