In: Chemistry
The barrier to C-C bond rotation in bromoethane
is 15 kJ/mol. What energy can you assign to an
H-Br eclipsing interaction?
Use strain energy increments from the table below in your
calculation.
(Specify units, kJ/mol; Calculate to nearest 0.1 energy units)
Energy cost |
|||
Interaction |
Cause |
(kJ/mol) |
(kcal/mol) |
H ↔ H eclipsed | Torsional strain |
4.0 |
1.0 |
H ↔ CH3 eclipsed | Mostly torsional strain |
6.0 |
1.4 |
CH3 ↔ CH3 eclipsed | Torsional and steric strain |
11.0 |
2.6 |
CH3 ↔ CH3 gauche | Steric strain |
3.8 |
0.9 |
The barrier to C-C bond rotation is the difference between relative energies of the most stable conformer and the least stable conformer of the molecule.
Now, for bromoethane, we can draw the most stable (staggered) and least stable(eclipsed) conformer as follows
Since the difference between the most stable and least stable conformer of bromoethane is given to be 15 kJ/mol, we can write
Hence, the energy assigned to the H-Br eclipsing interaction is about 7.0 kJ/mol.