Talk:Photoacid

Rename article Photoacid?
I would like to propose that this article be renamed Photoacid. The present article uses the title compound as one example of a photoacid, and the properties of this class of compounds are really more important than the properties of one example compound. Of course triphenylsulfonium triflate could continue as the first example even if the article is renamed. The article does mention "many related salts" in the intro, and I have just added another specific example. Other opinions? Dirac66 (talk) 23:52, 14 April 2016 (UTC)
 * Your reasoning is convincing to me. I would just proceed since I dont think that many editors know or care about this compound or the phenomenon. I wrote it as a way to learn about photoacids (but was disappointed at the short wavelengths required).--Smokefoot (talk) 00:15, 15 April 2016 (UTC)
 * Thanks for your support. The only glitch is that the existing redirect should be removed first, so I have posted a deletion request at Photoacid and an explanation at Talk:Photoacid. Dirac66 (talk) 21:01, 16 April 2016 (UTC)
 * OK, the redirect has been deleted and I have renamed the article to Photoacid. I also rearranged the material to fit the new title - now we start by defining Photoacid, and then introduce the example in the second paragraph.
 * One remaining problem is that the title on top of the infobox now says Photoacid also. I think it should say Triphenylsulfonium triflate, a photoacid, but I don't know how to change it. Dirac66 (talk) 01:07, 17 April 2016 (UTC)

Split proposal 8 November 2020
A large part of this article focuses on a specific photoacid, triphenylsulfonium triflate. This compound should have a separate article. –LaundryPizza03 ( d c̄ ) 11:40, 8 November 2020 (UTC)

Oppose. The article is so short that it doesn't need to be divided into two even smaller articles. The 4 sentences and 2 chemical equations are given as an example of the general phenomenon of photoacids. Without this specific example, the article would be harder to understand. Dirac66 (talk) 16:16, 8 November 2020 (UTC)
 * Support. The article was pretty technically dense even though the main ideas of "photoacid" do not require advanced chemical knowlege. I took a swing at cleaning up (hopefully I got the content into the correct sections) keeping this application as the main topic. The reactions could benefit from diagrams (especially the radical mechanisms and thioether product structure, and the whole pyranine reaction.I think there are other applications of this specific chemical than the generic idea of "example of photoacid": Sigma–Aldrich mentions use in OLEDs, lasers, and polymers, which seem a little different than the general idea of just a cherry-picked example of an irreversible H+ source. Or at worst this chemical is specifically useful for it (therefore the chemical meets WP:GNG). It also helps organize the 'pedia by collecting technical data "per compound" independent of a specific application. Three other wikipedias have stub articles for it, so that can help with cross-wiki self-consistency. DMacks (talk) 03:48, 10 November 2020 (UTC)


 * OK, perhaps I was over-reacting to the word "Split" which suggested to me the idea of removing part of this article. I think the triphenylsulfonium triflate example should remain in this article. But I do not object to also including it in an article on that compound which could include its other properties and applications as well. Dirac66 (talk) 02:24, 12 November 2020 (UTC)
 * I would definitely support keeping the example here if a separate chemical-article is spawned for it. Splitting demonstrates that the chemical is notable, and we already agree that this is one of its notable reactions regardless, so it's a good example of the reaction as well. DMacks (talk) 22:41, 12 November 2020 (UTC)

Oppose. There is already a re-direct from triphenylsulfonium triflate and if necessary more information could be added about that specific compound, whether as a Chembox or in other ways. Other suggestions such as to have more diagrams could easily be incorporated without making the article too long. I think that the concept of a photoacid is interesting and I would suggest adding more examples. Mike Turnbull (talk) 12:11, 5 March 2021 (UTC)

Nomenclature confusing
The PAG-PAH nomenclature of Johns et al. is a little confusing. The photoacid generator (PAG) is not a molecule which generates a photoacid, since the acid generated (triflic acid) is not a photoacid but an ordinary ground-state molecule which is an acid. Rather a PAG seems to be a molecule which itself photolyses to form an acid generator which in this case is the dissociated ion pair [(C6H5)2S+.][CF3SO$− 3$]. Can this be explained more clearly in the article?

As for the second example, I agree that pyranine should be called a photoacid. But the abbreviation PAH is more often used in chemistry for Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, which of course is a completely different concept. Should we specify that this is a different use of "PAH"? Dirac66 (talk) 19:11, 25 November 2020 (UTC)