Carbon tetrahedral

Ammonia is a two-state system [16], in which the two base states lie at a minimum energy. They are connected by the inversion reaction with a small baiiier. The process proceeds upon the spin re-pairing of four electrons (Fig. 15) and has a very low barrier. The system is analogous to the tetrahedral carbon one... 

A similar situation holds foi a molecule containing a tetrahedral carbon is shown in (Figure 16). The reaction converting one enantiomer to another, is formally equivalent to the exchange of two sigma-bond electr on pair s, and... 

The two kinds of covalent bond are not identical, one being a simple covalent bond, a sigma (ct) bond, the other being a stronger (but more reactive) bond called a n bond (p. 56). As in the formation of methane both elements attain noble gas configurations. We can consider the formation of ethene as the linking of two tetrahedral carbon atoms to form the molecule C2H4 represented as ... 

Chiral separations are concerned with separating molecules that can exist as nonsupetimposable mirror images. Examples of these types of molecules, called enantiomers or optical isomers are illustrated in Figure 1. Although chirahty is often associated with compounds containing a tetrahedral carbon with four different substituents, other atoms, such as phosphoms or sulfur, may also be chiral. In addition, molecules containing a center of asymmetry, such as hexahehcene, tetrasubstituted adamantanes, and substituted aHenes or molecules with hindered rotation, such as some 2,2 disubstituted binaphthyls, may also be chiral. Compounds exhibiting a center of asymmetry are called atropisomers. An extensive review of stereochemistry may be found under Pharmaceuticals, Chiral. 

Electrophilic Substitution. The most common mechanism for electrophilic attack at an aromatic system involves the initial attack of an electrophile to give an intermediate containing a tetrahedral carbon atom loss of, usually a proton, from the intermediate, then gives the product ... 

Molecules prefer conformations that stagger bonds on neighboring tetrahedral carbons (see Chapter 5, Problem 1). Does the same apply to trigonal carbons ... 

Figure 1.6 A representation ol Van t Hoff s tetrahedral carbon atom. The solid lines are in the plane of the paper, the heavy wedged line comes out of the plane of the page, and the dashed line goes back behind the plane of the page.

Figure 9.1 Tetrahedral carbon atoms and their mirror images. Molecules of the type CH3X and CH2XY are identical to their mirror images, but a molecule of the type CHXYZ is not. A CHXYZ CH3X X l X hK vh H ...

Molecules that are not identical to their mirror images are kinds of stereoisomers called enantiomers (Greek encmtio, meaning "opposite"). Enantiomers are related to each other as a right hand is related to a left hand and result whenever a tetrahedral carbon is bonded to four different substituents (one need not be H). For example, lactic acid (2-hydroxypropanoic acid) exists as a pair of enantiomers because there are four different groups (—H, -OH, - CH3, -C02H) bonded to the central carbon atom. The enantiomers are called (-i-)-lactic acid and (-)-lactic acid. Both are found in sour milk, but only the (+) enantiomer occurs in muscle tissue. 

Because carbohydrates usually have numerous chirality centers, it was recognized long ago that a quick method for representing carbohydrate stereochemistry is needed. In 1891, Emil Fischer suggested a method based on the projection of a tetrahedral carbon atom onto a flat surface. These Fischer projections were soon adopted and are now a standard means of representing stereochemistry at chirality centers, particularly in carbohydrate chemistry. 

A tetrahedral carbon atom is represented in a Fischer projection by two crossed lines. The horizontal lines represent bonds coming out of the page, and the vertical lines represent bonds going into the page. 

The Tetrahedral Carbon Atom.—We have thus derived the result that an atom in which only s and p eigenfunctions contribute to bond formation and in which the quantization in polar coordinates is broken can form one, two, three, or four equivalent bonds, which are directed toward the corners of a regular tetrahedron (Fig. 4). This calculation provides the quantum mechanical justification of the chemist s tetrahedral carbon atom, present in diamond and all aliphatic carbon compounds, and for the tetrahedral quadrivalent nitrogen atom, the tetrahedral phosphorus atom, as in phosphonium compounds, the tetrahedral boron atom in B2H6 (involving single-electron bonds), and many other such atoms. 

Thus we have shown that when s and p orbitals are available and s—p quantization is broken an atom can form four (or fewer) equivalent bonds which are directed towards tetrahedron corners. To the approximation involved in these calculations the strength of a bond is independent of the nature of other bonds. This result gives us at once the justification for the tetrahedral carbon atom and other tetrahedral atoms, such as silicon, germanium, and tin in the diamond-type crystals of the elements and, in general, all atoms in tetrahedral structures. 

The Dependence of Bond Angles on Single Bond-Double Bond Resonance.—In a molecule such as phosgene or 1,1-dichloroethylene the value 125°16 for the angle Cl-C-0 (0) is predicted by the theory of the tetrahedral carbon atom in case that the C-Cl bonds have no double bond character. If the double bond resonates equally among all three positions, giving the Cl-C bond one-third double bond character, we expect from symmetry... 

The results shown in the table provide further evidence of the extraordinary extent to which the tetrahedral carbon atom of van t Hoff and Le Bel determines the structure of organic molecules. 

For a thorough understanding of stereochemistry, it is useful to examine molecular models (like those depicted in Fig. 4.1). However, this is not feasible when writing on paper or a blackboard. In 1891, Emil Fischer greatly served the interests of chemistry by inventing the Fischer projection, a method of representing tetrahedral carbon atoms on paper. By this convention, the model is held so that the two bonds in front of the paper are horizontal and those behind the paper are vertical. 

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