Dicarbonate
In organic chemistry, a dicarbonate, also known as a pyrocarbonate, is a compound containing the divalent [−O−(C=O)−O−(C=O)−O−] or −C
2O
5− functional group, which consists of two carbonate groups sharing an oxygen atom. These compounds can be viewed as double esters of a hypothetical dicarbonic acid, H
2C
2O
5 or HO−(C=O)−O−(C=O)−OH. Two important examples are dimethyl dicarbonate H3C−C2O5−CH3 and di-tert-butyl dicarbonate (H3C−)3C−C2O5−C(−CH3)3.