Butane, rotational energy barrier

Considerations of minimum overlap of radii of nonbonded substituents on the polymer chain are useful in understanding the preferred conformations of macromolecules in crystallites. The simplest example for our purposes is the polyethylene (1-3) chain in which the energy barriers to rotation can be expected to be similar to those in /i-butane. Figure 4-2 shows sawhorse projections of the conformational isomers of two adjacent carbon atoms in the polyethylene chain and the corresponding rotational energy barriers (not to scale). The angle of rotation is that between the polymer chain substitutents and is taken here to be zero when the two chain segments are as far as possible from each other. 

RNA, mRNA, rRNA, and tRNA. See Ribonucleic acid Roberts, John D., 928 Robinson, Sir Robert, 4, 402, 724 Robinson annulation, 724, 728 Rotamer, 90. See also Conformation Rotational energy barrier alkenes, 172—173 amides, 779 butane, 94—95 conjugated dienes, 31(r-371 ethane, 93—94... 

Threefold rotational potential energy barriers such as in ethane and butane are not always encountered. Twofold potential rotational energy barriers are produced by 1,4-phenylene groups in the main chain, for example. Catena-po y(su uv) also has a twofold rotational potential energy barrier. 

Combination of Equation [16] and [13] yields (cos t(),) = 0. Therefore the independent rotational potential of the form given earlier would not affect the value of the characteristic ratio, no matter how high the energy barrier is. Another more realistic assumption, in contrast, is that the energy is better represented by that of -butane, where there are still three minima but their energies are different (see Figure 7). Yet no matter what form of energy is assumed, the independent rotational potentials need to be removed to obtain characteristic ratios of polymethylene that are close to experiment. One therefore must use more realistic models like the one described next. 

Conformations differ from each other in the position to which some single bond or set of bonds has rotated. For molecules such as butane, the various C—C and C—H single bonds are continuously undergoing rotation since there is no (or very tittle) energy barrier to that rotation. One conformation cannot be isolated from another, and at any one moment some molecules of butane are in one conformation and other molecules are in another conformation. The greater the total number of atoms in a molecule, the greater the number of different conformations for the molecule. 

Although the barriers to rotation in a butane molecule are larger than those of an ethane molecule (Section 4.8), they are still far too small to permit isolation of the gauche and anti conformations at normal temperatures. Only at extremely low temperatures would the molecules have insufficient energies to surmount these barriers. 

In butane (RCH2CH2R 16, X = Me or 23, R = R = methyl), three bonds that must be considered for rotation are C1-C2, C2-C3, and C3-C4. Hereafter, the symbol Me will be used to represent methyl (-CH3). Examination of the C2-C3 bond shows butane to be symmetrical with respect to these two carbons (Me-CH2CH2-Me), making the C1-C2 and C3-C4 bonds identical. The goal is to find the highest energy barrier to rotation in butane and, to do this, C1-C2 is compared with C2 -C3 (C2-C3 versus C3-C4 can also be used). 

The energy barrier for rotation about the C2-C3 bond in butane is 5.86 kcal mol-i. Make a model of the eclipsed-syn rotamer of butane and hold it by the C2-C3 bond. Rotation about the C1-C2 bond and the C3-C4 bond is possible, and the model indicates that the methyl groups do not touch. The model is misleading,... 

These two conformations are nonsuperimposable mirror images of each other, and their relationship is therefore enantiomeric. Nevertheless, butane is not a chiral compound. It is optically inactive, because these two conformations are constandy interconverting via single-bond rotation (which occurs with a very low energy barrier). The temperature would have to be extremely low to prevent interconversion between these two conformations. In contrast, a chirality center cannot invert its configuration via single-bond rotations. (i )-2-Butanol cannot be converted into (5)-2-butanol via a conformational change. 

Figure 5-8 Conformational energies and rotational barriers in butane, the difference in energy between the anti and gauche forms is 0.8-0.9 kcal mole-1. The energies are relative to conformation 7 as zero.

---