Drawing cyclohexanes

Practice drawing cyclohexane chairs oriented in either direction... 

Pr actice drawing cyclohexane chair s oriented in either dir ection. 

We saw early in Section 3.3.2 that, if we draw cyclohexane in typical two-dimensional form, the bonds to the ring could be described as up or down , according to whether they are wedged or dotted. This is how we would see the molecule if we viewed it from the top. When we look at the molecule from the side, we now see the chair conformation the ring is not planar as the two-dimensional form suggests. Bonds still maintain their up and down relationship, but this means bonds shown as up alternate axial-equatorial around the ring they are... 

Before going any further, it s important that you learn how to draw cyclohexane properly. 

Without cluttering the structure with Cs and Hs, a chemist would draw cyclohexane as one of these three structures. 

Up to now, we have simply used the hexagon A to represent cyclohexane. We shall see that, whilst this is not strictly accurate, it is nonetheless still useful. The more correct structures B and C (which are actually just different views of the same molecule) take some practice to draw properly. A recommended way of drawing cyclohexane is shown in the box. 

Being able to draw cyclohexane chair conformations will help you learn the chemistry of six-membered rings. Several rules are useful. 

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