Conformational mobility

We have seen that alkanes are not locked into a single conformation Rotation around the central carbon-carbon bond m butane occurs rapidly mterconvertmg anti and gauche conformations Cyclohexane too is conformationally mobile Through a process known as ring inversion, chair-chair mterconversion, or more simply ring flipping, one chair conformation is converted to another chair... 

Disubstituted cyclopropanes exemplify one of the simplest cases involving stabil ity differences between stereoisomers A three membered ring has no conformational mobility so the ring cannot therefore reduce the van der Waals strain between cis sub stituents on adjacent carbons without introducing other strain The situation is different m disubstituted derivatives of cyclohexane... 

Like hydrogen peroxide the inorganic substances hydrazine (H2NNH2) and hydroxylamine (H2NOH) possess conformational mobility Wnte stmctural representations or build molecular models of two different staggered conformations of (a) hydrazine and (b) hydroxylamine... 

The main reaction path is stereospecific, with the trifluoroacetate being added syn to the proton. This implies that the reaction proceeds through a discrete Itydride-bridged intermediate rather than a conformationally mobile cyclooctyl cation. 

Chair cyclohexanes are conformationally mobile and can undergo a ring-flip, which interconverts axial and equatorial positions. Substituents on the ring are more stable in the equatorial position because axial substituents cause 1,3-diaxial interactions. The amount of 1,3-diaxial steric strain caused by an axial substituent depends on its hulk. 

The preferred conformation of the unsubstituted calixarene shown in Fig. 1 (X = CH2) is 1,3-alternating, whereby two opposite rings are perpendicular to the plane formed by the four methylene groups and the other two are parallel to the same plane [11]. In the case of calix[6]arenes the conformational mobility is enhanced and 1,3,5-alternating or 1,4-alternating winged conformations have been identified as the preferred ones [9]. Very few heteratom-... 

The [12]annulene (96) has been prepared. In solution this molecule exhibits rapid conformational mobility (as do many other annulenes), so that above a certain temperature, in this case — 150°C, all protons are magnetically equivalent. However, at — 170°C the mobility is greatly slowed and the three inner protons are found at 85 while the nine outer protons are at 68. Annulene 96 suffers from hydrogen interference and is certainly not planar. It is very unstable and above —50°C rearranges to 97. Several bridged and dehydro[12]annulenes are known. 

The results for [16] annulene are similar. The compound was synthesized in two different ways, both of which gave 103, which in solution is in equilibrium with 104. Above -50°C there is conformational mobility, resulting in the magnetic equivalence of all protons, but at — 130°C the compound is clearly paratropic there are 4 protons at 10.565 and 12 at 5.35 5. In the solid state, where the compound exists entirely as 103, X-ray crystallography shows that the molecules are nonplanar with almost complete bond alternation The single bonds are 1.44-1.47 A and the double bonds are 1.31-1.35 A. A number of dehydro and bridged... 

The hydrolysis of acetals and ortho esters is governed hy the stereoelectronic control factor previously discussed (see A and B on p. 427) though the effect can generally be seen only in systems where conformational mobility is limited, especially in cyclic systems. There is evidence for synplanar stereoselection in the... 

Gygax R, Wirz J, Sprague JT, Allinger NL. Electronic structure and photophysical properties of planar conjugated hydrocarbons with a 4n-membered ring. Part III. Conjugative stabilization in an antiaromatic system The conformational mobility of l,5-bisdehydro[12]annulene. Helv Chim Acta 1977 60 2522-9. 

F. Sansone, L. Baldini, A. Casnati, and R. Ungaro, Conformationally mobile glucosylthioureidocalix[6]- and calix[8]arenes Synthesis, aggregation and lectin binding, Supramol. Chem., 20 (2008) 161-168. 

In contrast to the conformationally mobile dianthrylethanes, the rigid cyclophane [11], with a face-to-face arrangement of the rc-layers, is electrostatically less favourable for reduction and only gives rise to a dianion upon alkali-metal reduction (Huber et al., 1983). 

Protein stability is just the difference in free energy between the correctly folded structure of a protein and the unfolded, denatured form. In the denatured form, the protein is unfolded, side chains and the peptide backbone are exposed to water, and the protein is conformationally mobile (moving around between a lot of different, random structures). The more stable the protein, the larger the free energy difference between the unfolded form and the native structure. 

The conformational mobility of a chromophoric main-chain polymer is often connected to its electronic structure. Therefore, changes in the UV-visible absorption spectra and/or chiroptical properties are spectroscopically observable as thermo-, solvato-, piezo-, or electrochromisms. It is widely reported that o-conjugating polysilanes exhibit these phenomena remarkably clearly.34 However, their structural origins were controversial until recently, since limited information was available on the correlation between the conformational properties of the main chain, electronic state, and (chir)optical characteristics. In 1996, we reported that in various polysilanes in tetrahydrofuran (THF) at 30°C, the main-chain peak intensity per silicon repeat unit, e (Si repeat unit)-1 dm3 cm-1, increases exponentially as the viscosity index, a, increases.41 Although conventional viscometric measurements often requires a wide range of low-dispersity molecular-weight polymer samples, a size exclusion chromatography (SEC) machine equipped with a viscometric detector can afford... 

In the held of thermotropic cholesterics, the most promising approach seems to be that reported by Nordio and Ferrarini22 23 for calculating helical twisting powers. It allows one to tackle real molecules with rather complex structures and to describe them in detail. The model is currently being extended to include a better description of nematic solvents and specific solute-solvent interactions. Once tested also for conformationally mobile molecules, this model could allow the prediction of the handedness of single-component cholesterics, and, in the held of induced cholesterics, very interesting information on solute molecules could be obtained. 

In the pentose series, attack has also been observed to occur mainly from the less-hindered side of the double bond, as in the addition of trifluoro(fluoroxy)methane to di-O-acetyl-D-arabinal. Trifluoromethyl 3,4-di-0-acetyl-2-deoxy-2-fluoro-/3-D-arabinopyranoside and 3,4-di-0-acetyl-2-deoxy-2-fluoro-/J-D-arabinopyranosyl fluoride were obtained,72,74 together with a very small proportion of 3,4-di-0-acetyl-2-deoxy-2-fluoro-a-D-ribopyranosyl fluoride.74 With di-O-acetyl-D-xylal, however, the lyxose derivatives were mainly obtained.72,73 The suggestion has been made73 that the greater conformational mobility of pentopyranoses results in a preponderance of the C d) conformer of the D-lyxose derivatives,72,73 such that F-l and CFsO-l are axially disposed. For further reactions of unsaturated carbohydrates with tri-fluoro(fluoroxy)methane, see Section 11,9. 

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