Ketone
Ketone, a class of organic chemical compounds. Many ketones are either pleasant-smelling liquids or odorless solids. Ketones have various uses in chemistry, medicine, and industry. Acetone, a common ketone, is used as a solvent for resins, lacquers, and cellulose. Camphor, another ketone, is used in liniments and insecticides and in the manufacture of celluloid and lacquer. Other ketones, such as civetone, are used in making perfumes. Ketones also are used in making flavorings, dyes, chloroform, and plastics.
A ketone always contains the carbonyl group (CO), made up of one atom of carbon and one of oxygen. The carbonyl group is always attached to two carbon-containing radicals. (A radical is a group of atoms that acts as a single atom in chemical reactions.) Ketones are closely related to the aldehydes.
General formula: RCOR, where R stands for the carbon radical. The two R's may stand for the same radical (in a simple ketone) or for different radicals (in a mixed ketone).