Reason why the gauche conformation of butane would show a lower energy at a dihedral angle greater than 60?

(60 degrees was the end part)

I don't get why...

in my experiment we found that C-1-C-2-C-3 bond angle at gauche was 113.46 degrees

C1-C-2-C-3-C-4 dihedral angle at gauche was 65.30 degrees

and H-C-1-C-2-C-3 dihedral angle at gauche was 65.71 degrees

does it have something w/ having less molecules in the first one (not dihedral)?

4 Answers

  • a rotation of 60 or greater will move the methyl groups further apart (assuming a view thru the C2-C3 carbons). as the methyl groups get further apart, the energy decreases...

    ~ 11 kJ at 0 vs ~ 3.8 or 0 kJ at 60 or, say 180

    this is due to the torsional strength, as well as the steric strength of the e- trying to get as far away from eachother as possible.

  • Gauche Conformation

  • Conformations Of Butane

  • It has to do with the gauche, or GOO-ch, better known as the "grundle," or "ABC" standing for *** Ball Connection.... It can get rather hot even at low energy activity.

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