Strain van der Waals

FIGURE 3 6 The gauche and anti conformations of butane shown as ball and spoke mod els left) and as Newman projections right) The gauche conformation is less stable than the anti because of the van der Waals strain between the methyl groups... 

Nonbonded interactions are the forces be tween atoms that aren t bonded to one another they may be either attractive or repulsive It often happens that the shape of a molecule may cause two atoms to be close in space even though they are sep arated from each other by many bonds Induced dipole/induced dipole interactions make van der Waals forces in alkanes weakly attractive at most distances but when two atoms are closer to each other than the sum of their van der Waals radii nuclear-nuclear and electron-electron repulsive forces between them dominate the fvan derwaais term The resulting destabilization is called van der Waals strain... 

At Its most basic level separating the total strain of a structure into its components is a qualita tive exercise For example a computer drawn model of the eclipsed conformation of butane using ideal bond angles and bond distances (Figure 3 8) reveals that two pairs of hydrogens are separated by a distance of only 175 pm a value considerably smaller than the sum of their van der Waals radii (2 X 120 pm = 240 pm) Thus this conformation is destabilized not only by the torsional strain associ ated with its eclipsed bonds but also by van der Waals strain... 

FIGURE 3 14 (a) A ball and spoke model and (b) a space filling model of the boat confor mation of cyclohexane Torsional strain from eclipsed bonds and van der Waals strain involving the flagpole hydrogens (red) make the boat less stable than the chair... 

Van der Waals strain between hydrogen of axial CH3 and axial hydrogens at C 3 and C 5... 

FIGURE 3 20 The enthalpy difference between as- and trans 1 2 dimethylcyclopropane can be determined from their heats of combustion Van der Waals strain between methyl groups on the same side of the ring make the cis isomer less stable than the trans... 

In this case the relationship between stability and stereochemistry is easily explained on the basis of van der Waals strain The methyl groups on the same side of the ring m cis 1 2 dimethylcyclopropane crowd each other and increase the potential energy of this stereoisomer Steric hindrance between methyl groups is absent m trans 1 2 dimethylcyclopropane... 

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... 

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... 

Van der Waals strain destabilization that results when atoms or groups on non adjacent atoms are too close to one another... 

Van der Waals strain (destabilizing when alkyl groups are cis to each other)... 

FIGURE 5 5 Ball and spoke and space filling models of as and trans 2 butene The space filling model shows the serious van der Waals strain between two of the hydrogens in as 2 butene The molecule ad justs by expanding those bond angles that increase the separation between the crowded atoms The combi nation of angle strain and van der Waals strain makes as 2 butene less stable than trans 2 butene... 

A similar steric effect was seen in Section 3 11 where van der Waals strain be tween methyl groups on the same side of the ring made as 1 2 dimethylcyclopropane less stable than its trans stereoisomer... 

The difference m stability between stereoisomeric alkenes is even more pronounced with larger alkyl groups on the double bond A particularly striking example compares as and trans 22 5 5 tetramethyl 3 hexene m which the heat of combustion of the cis stereoisomer is 44 kJ/mol (10 5 kcal/mol) higher than that of the trans The cis isomer IS destabilized by the large van der Waals strain between the bulky tert butyl groups on the same side of the double bond... 

The greater stability of more highly substituted double bonds is an exam pie of an electronic effect The decreased stability that results from van der Waals strain between cis substituents is an example of a steric effect... 

The letter sms cis and s trans refers to conformations around the C—C single bond m the diene The s trans conformation of 1 3 butadiene is 12 kJ/mol (2 8 kcal/mol) more stable than the s cis which is destabilized by van der Waals strain between the hydrogens at C 1 and C 4... 

A second isomer of [lOJannulene (the cis trans cis cis trans stereoisomer) can have bond angles close to 120° but is destabilized by a close contact between two hydro gens directed toward the interior of the ring To minimize the van der Waals strain between these hydrogens the nng adopts a nonplanar geometry which limits its ability to be stabilized by tt electron delocalization It too has been prepared and is not very stable Similarly the next higher (4n + 2) system [14]annulene is also somewhat desta bilized by van der Waals strain and is nonplanar... 

Bulky tert butyl groups are cis to one another on each side of the double bond and van der Waals strain destabilizes the alkene... 

Van der Waals radius (Section 2 17) A measure of the effec tive size of an atom or a group The repulsive force between two atoms increases rapidly when they approach each other at distances less than the sum of their van der Waals radii Van der Waals strain (Section 3 2) Destabilization that results when two atoms or groups approach each other too closely Also known as van der Waals repulsion Vicinal (Section 6 14) Describing two atoms or groups at tached to adjacent atoms... 

---