Hexane conformation

Therefore, we can compute the equilibrium composition of the two methylcyclo-hexane conformers as shown below ... 

Solution 17 All four stereoisomers of 1,2-dimethylcyclohexane are chiral. The di-l,2-dimethylcyclo-hexane conformations have equal energy and are readily interconverted, as shown here. 

Tree representation of the conformation search problem for hexane. Unlike the tree in Figure 9.4 the path gth from the root node to any of the terminal nodes is constant. 

In this chapter we 11 examine the conformations of various alkanes and cyclo alkanes focusing most of our attention on three of them ethane butane and cyclo hexane A detailed study of even these three will take us a long way toward understanding the mam ideas of conformational analysis... 

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... 

FIGURE 3 9 Ball and spoke models of pentane and hexane in their all anti (zigzag) conformations... 

FIGURE 3 17 A guide to representing the orienta tions of the bonds in the chair conformation of cycio hexane... 

Their heats of combustion (Table 3 2) reveal that trans 1 4 dimethylcyclohexane is 7 kJ/mol (17 kcal/mol) more stable than the cis stereoisomer It is unrealistic to believe that van der Waals strain between cis substituents is responsible because the methyl groups are too far away from each other To understand why trans 1 4 dimethylcyclo hexane is more stable than cis 1 4 dimethylcyclohexane we need to examine each stereoisomer m its most stable conformation... 

Skew boat (Section 3 7) An unstable conformation of cyclo hexane It is slightly more stable than the boat conforma tion... 

The same principles just developed for butane apply to pentane, hexane, and all higher alkanes. The most favorable conformation for any alkane has the carbon-carbon bonds in staggered arrangements, with large substituents arranged anti to one another. A generalized alkane structure is shown in Figure 3.10. 

After recrystallization from hexane, the major diastereomer is obtained in a 71 % yield. Although interpretation of the steric course of the reaction is difficult25, the preferred formation of the (6S )-diastereomer may be rationalized in terms of an imine conformation which is favored according to the Felkin-Anh model (vicinal C-O orthogonal to C = N)26 and by chelation21. 

An acyclic molecule has more entropy than a similar cyclic molecule because there are more conformations (cf. hexane and cyclohexane). Ring opening therefore means a gain in entropy and ring closing a loss. 

Thermochromism was already noted for the first stable disilene l.2a In dialkyl- or bis(trimethylsilyl)diaryldisilenes, the size of the aryl groups affects the thermochromism Tip-substituted ones (9,10) are thermochro-mic,10 while Mes-substituted ones (3,4) are not.9 Interestingly, tetrakisftri-alkylsilyl)disilanes 22 and 23 are highly thermochromic hexane solutions of 22 and 23 are light yellow below 0°C but dark red above 50°C.21 These observations were interpreted in terms of a thermal equilibrium between the bent and twisted conformations. Compound 24, having an absorption band at 480 nm, is dark red in solution even at room temperature. 

Another important factor in the hydrogenation of a,p-unsaturated acids was the solvent by increasing the polarity of the solvent used (n-hexane < toluene < methyl acetate < THF < methanol) a progressive decrease in ee was observed. This was probably due to the fact that H2 and the a,p-unsaturated acids were more soluble in the apolar solvents and also that CD was present in the open conformation, the enantioselective conformation (8). In fact, the highest conversion and ee were obtained with n-hexane (Figure 2). 

Theoretical calculation at the HF/6-31G level99,102 on some S-S dications and their precursors have shown that the electronic structure of 1,4-dithionia-bicyclo[2.2.0]hexane and the sp-sp conformation of the tetramethyldisulfonium dication, the difference in the energy levels of [S] — [S] and [S] + n[S]103 is decreased owing to steric strain and the order of orbitals thus corresponds to case B. In the less strained systems (l,5-dithioniabicyclo[3.3.0]octane, 1,4-dithioniabicyclo[3.2.0]heptane), the order of orbitals corresponds to case C. Interestingly, ap-ap conformer of tetramethyldisulfonium dication was reported to correspond to case A. 

The ratio of intensities of ion peaks [M — Br]+/M+ for cis-1,2-dibromocyclo-hexane is 1 to 55, while for its irans-isomer the ratio is 64 to 5. The difference is due to anchimeric assistance of the second bromine atom (Scheme 5.11) in diaxial conformation) [16]. 

---