Boat conformers

A second but much less stable nonplanar conformation called the boat is shown in Eigure 3 14 Like the chair the boat conformation has bond angles that are approximately tetrahedral and is relatively free of angle strain It is however destabi hzed by the torsional strain associated with eclipsed bonds on four of its carbons The... 

Sources of strain in the boat conformation are discussed in detail in a paper in the March 2000 issue of the Jour nal of Chemical Education p 332... 

A potential energy diagram for nng inversion m cyclohexane is shown m Figure 3 18 In the first step the chair conformation is converted to a skew boat which then proceeds to the inverted chair m the second step The skew boat conformation is an inter mediate in the process of ring inversion Unlike a transition state an intermediate is not a potential energy maximum but is a local minimum on the potential energy profile... 

The distorted structure can be replaced by a more reasonable structure using an empir ical molecular mechanics calculation This calculation which is invoked m Spartan Build by clicking on Minimize, automatically finds the structure with the smallest strain energy (m this case a structure with realistic bond distances and a boat conformation for the SIX membered ring)... 

Birch reduction (Section 11 11) Reduction of an aromatic nng to a 1 4 cyclohexadiene on treatment with a group I metal (Li Na K) and an alcohol in liquid ammonia Boat conformation (Section 3 7) An unstable conformation of cyclohexane depicted as... 

FIGURE 1.7 The boat conformation of cyclohexane, a = axial hydrogen atom and e = equatorial hydrogen atom. 

A modified boat conformation of cyclohexane, known as the twist boat (Fig. 1.8), or skew boat, has been suggested to minimize torsional and nonbounded interactions. This particular conformation is estimated to be about 1.5 kcal moE (6 kJ moE ) lower in energy than the boat form at room temperature. 

Studies of cyclodecane derivatives by X-ray crystallographic methods have demonstrated that the boat-chair-boat conformation is adopted in the solid state. (Notice that boat is used here in a different sense than for cyclohexane.) As was indicated in Table 3.7 (p. 146), cyclodecane is significantly more strained than cyclohexane. Examination of the boat-chair-boat conformation reveals that the source of most of this strain is the close van der Waals contacts between two sets of three hydrogens on either side of the molecule. 

In addition to the expected 2,2-dimethyl- and 2a-methyl- compounds (7) and (8) the 2 -methyl-3-ketone (9) is obtained. Chemical evidence and optical rotatory dispersion measurements indicate that ring A in (7) and (9) is in the boat conformation. 

FIGURE 3.14 (a) A ball-and-spoke model and (h) a space-filling model of the boat conformation of cyclohexane. Torsional strain from eclipsed bonds and van der Waals strain involving the "flagpole" hydrogens (red) make the boat less stable than the chair. 

The various conformations of cyclohexane are in rapid equilibrium with one another, but at any moment almost all of the molecules exist in the chair confor mation. Not more than one or two molecules per thousand are present in the skew boat conformation. Thus, the discussion of cyclohexane confor-mational analysis that follows focuses exclusively on the chair confor mation. 

Boat conformation (Section 3.7) An unstable conformation of cyclohexane, depicted as... 

The eight-membered rings 13.14 normally adopt boat conformations in the solid state with short S=N bond distances (1.51-1.52 A) that are typical of sulfur diimides. There are no transannular S S contacts. The sole exception is the antimony derivative BuSb(NSN)2Sb Bu, which is a planar eight-membered ring. 

Bohlmann and Arndt (S3) have separated the possible stereoisomers of hexahydrojulolidine (78-80) and subjected them to mercuric acetate oxidation. The rates, which were followed by the precipitation of mercurous acetate, showed that isomer 78 reacted about five times faster than isomer 79, while isomer 80 reacted very slowly. The difference in rates between 78 and 79, both of which have tertiary a-hydrogens trans to the nitrogen electron pair, was explained by pointing out that greater relief of non-classical strain occurs in the oxidation of 78 as compared to 79. Isomer 80 has no tertiary a-hydrogens trans to the nitrogen electron pair except when it is in an unfavorable boat conformation. 

FIGURE 7.9 (a) Chair and boat conformations of a pyranose sugar, (b) Two possible chair conformations of /3-D-glncose. 

NH4]4[N4H4P40g].2H20 boat conformation K4[N4H4P40g].4H20 chair conformation... 

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