Anti- conformation

Figure 4-18 The Potential Energy for Rotation of n-Butane About its Central Bond Axis. The anti conformer in the center is slightly lower in energy than the two gauche conformers.

We have it on good authority (Ege, 1998) that the gauche minimum on the potential energy coordinate is about 0.9 kcal moI higher in energy than the anti conformation. This establishes a two-state energy system for the stable conformers, gauche and anti (Fig. 4-19). 

The large sulfur atom is a preferred reaction site in synthetic intermediates to introduce chirality into a carbon compound. Thermal equilibrations of chiral sulfoxides are slow, and parbanions with lithium or sodium as counterions on a chiral carbon atom adjacent to a sulfoxide group maintain their chirality. The benzylic proton of chiral sulfoxides is removed stereoselectively by strong bases. The largest groups prefer the anti conformation, e.g. phenyl and oxygen in the first example, phenyl and rert-butyl in the second. Deprotonation occurs at the methylene group on the least hindered site adjacent to the unshared electron pair of the sulfur atom (R.R. Fraser, 1972 F. Montanari, 1975). 

Figure 3 7 illustrates the potential energy relationships among the various confer matrons of butane The staggered conformations are more stable than the eclipsed At any instant almost all the molecules exist m staggered conformations and more are present m the anti conformation than m the gauche The point of maximum potential... 

FIGURE 3 6 The gauche and anti conformations of butane shown as ball and spoke mod els left) and as Newman projections right) The gauche conformation is less stable than the anti because of the van der Waals strain between the methyl groups... 

Higher alkanes having unbranched carbon chains are like butane most stable m then-all anti conformations The energy difference between gauche and anti conformations is similar to that of butane and appreciable quantities of the gauche conformation are pres ent m liquid alkanes at 25°C In depicting the conformations of higher alkanes it is often more helpful to look at them from the side rather than end on as m a Newman projec tion Viewed from this perspective the most stable conformations of pentane and hexane... 

We can relate the conformational preference for an equatorial methyl group m methylcyclohexane to the conformation of a noncyclic hydrocarbon we discussed ear her butane The red bonds m the following structural formulas trace paths through four carbons beginning at an equatorial methyl group The zigzag arrangement described by each path mimics the anti conformation of butane... 

Section 3 2 The two staggered conformations of butane are not equivalent The anti conformation is more stable than the gauche... 

Anti conformation of butane Gauche conformation of butane... 

One way to demonstrate that meso 2 3 butanediol is achiral is to recognize that its eclipsed conformation has a plane of symmetry that passes through and is perpendicular to the C 2-C 3 bond as illustrated m Eigure 7 11a The anti conformation is achiral as... 

Construct molecular models of the gauche and anti conformations of 1 2 ethanediol and explore the possibility of intramolecular hydrogen bond formation in each one... 

Typical carbon-oxygen bond distances m ethers are similar to those of alcohols (—142 pm) and are shorter than carbon-carbon bond distances m alkanes (—153 pm) An ether oxygen affects the conformation of a molecule m much the same way that a CH2 unit does The most stable conformation of diethyl ether is the all staggered anti conformation Tetrahydropyran is most stable m the chair conformation—a fact that has an important bearing on the structures of many carbohydrates... 

The geometry of the peptide bond is planar and the mam chain is arranged m an anti conformation (Section 27 7)... 

Example The reaction coordinate for rotation about the central carbon-carbon bond in -butane has several stationary points. A, C, E, and G are minima and B, D, and Fare maxima. Only the structures at the minima represent stable species and of these, the anti conformation is more stable than the gauche. 

Although the same theoretical studies indicate very small energy differences between the syn and anti conformers of the 3-carbaldehydes of furan, thiophene and pyrrole with a slight preference for the syn conformer, in chloroform solution the furan- and thiophene-3-carbaldehydes adopt the anti conformers to the extent of 100 and 80% respectively (82X3245). However, A-substituted 3-(trifluoroacetyl)pyrroles exist in solution as mixtures of rotational isomers (80JCR(S)42). 

The syn-anti conformational problem of a- and /3-pyrazofurins (756 one of the rare naturally occurring pyrazole compounds, see Section 4.04.4.4.3), which involves a rotation around a pyrazolic sp carbon atom and a sugar sp carbon atom, has been studied theoretically using the PCILO method (81MI40403). In agreement with the experimental observations, the /3 anomer is energetically more favourable than the a anomer, the preferred conformations being anti and syn, respectively. 

A prototype of such phenomena can be seen in even the simplest carboxylic acid, acetic acid (CH3CHOOH). Acidity is determined by the energy or free energy difference between the dissociated and nondissociated forms, whose energetics usually depend significantly on their conformation, e.g., the syn/anti conformational change of the carboxyl-ate group in the compound substantially affects the acid-base equilibrium. The coupled conformation and solvent effects on acidity is treated in Ref. 20. 

Figures 17A and 17B (p. 183) show energy as a function of rotation for a series of 1-substituted acetaldehydes, with 6 = 0° in the syn conformation and 6 = 180° in the anti conformation. The calculations were done using the PM3 method. Figure 17A for a vacuum, whereas Fig. 17B is for a solvent cavity with a dielectric constant of 4." The table gives the calculated barriers. Discuss the following aspects (a) rationalize the order Br > Cl > F for syn conformers (b) rationalize the shift to favor the am. conformation in the more polar environment. 

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