The Hofmann Elimination is an elimination reaction of alkylammonium salts that forms C-C double bonds [pi bonds]. [note] It proceeds through a concerted E2 mechanism. In contrast with most elimination reactions that yield alkenes, which follow the Zaitsev (Saytzeff) rule, the Hofmann elimination … [Read more...]
Fused Rings
At the beginning of this series I said that the fact that carbon can form rings leads to all kinds of interesting consequences. We're going to see many examples of that in our post today! So far, we've only talked about cyclic molecules containing one ring. But, of course, molecules with multiple … [Read more...]
Substituted Cyclohexanes: “A Values”
In the last post we saw that adding a methyl group to cyclohexane results in two chair conformers that are unequal in energy. We saw that the conformer where the methyl group was equatorial is the most stable, since it avoids destabilizing diaxial interactions (technically, gauche interactions) that … [Read more...]
Substituted Cyclohexanes – Equatorial vs Axial
Just to bring you up to speed, let's quickly review the last post. And at the bottom, I’ll also correct a little fib I made. 1. Cyclohexane Undergoes A Conformational Interconversion Known As A Chair Flip. In this chair flip, all axial groups become equatorial, and all equatorial groups become … [Read more...]