Nucleic acid Nucleic acid Nucleic acids are the biopolymers, or small biomolecules, essential to all known forms of life. The term "nucleic acid" is the overall name for DNA and RNA. They are composed of nucleotides, which are the monomers made of three components: a 5-carbon sugar, a phosphate group and a nitrogenous base. If the sugar is a compound ribose, the polymer is RNA (ribonucleic acid); if the sugar is derived from ribose as deoxyribose, the polymer is DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). Nucleic acids are the most important of all biomolecules. They are found in abundance in all living things, where they
Formic acid a volatile pH modifier in HPLC and capillary electrophoresis. Formic acid is a source for a formyl group for example in the formylation of methylaniline to N-methylformanilide in toluene. In synthetic organic chemistry, formic acid is often used as a source of hydride ion. The Eschweiler-Clarke reaction and the Leuckart-Wallach reaction are examples of this application. It, or more commonly its azeotrope with triethylamine, is also used as a source of hydrogen in transfer hydrogenation. As mentioned below, formic acid readily decomposes with concentrated sulfuric acid to form carbon monoxide. Formic acid shares most of the chemical properties of other