Question

explain about the relative stabilities of the conformations of ethane.

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Answer 1

ANSWER⇩⇩

the two conformations of ethane differ in their relative stabilities. In staggered conformations of ethane, the electron clouds of carbon - hydrogen bonds are as far apart as possible and therefore, the staggered conformations has minimum repulsions between the H - atoms attached tetrahedrally to the two carbon atoms. On the othe hand, in the eclipsed conformation the electron clouds of the carbon - hydrogen bonds are closer to each other and therefore, eclipsed conformation has maximum force of repulsion between H - atoms. therefore, the staggered conformation is more stable than the eclipsed conformation.

So, when the staggered form changes into the eclipsed form, the repulsion forces increases and the molecule will possess more energy and thus loses stability. These repulsive interactions between the electron clouds which affect the stability of the conformation is called torsional strain.

the magnitude of the torsional strain depends upon the angle of rotation about c-c bond this angle is also called the dihedral angle or torsional angle. Thus, of the conformations of ethane, the staggered form has the least torsional strain while eclipsed form has maximum torsional strain. Thus, the rotation around c-c bond in ethane is completely free. the difference in the energy contents of the staggered and eclipsed conformation is 12.5KJ mol-. this small barrier to rotation is called the torsional barrier of the single bond. however this energy difference is not large enough to prevent rotation.

even at ordinary temperature, the molecules of thermal of kinetic energy to overcome this energy barrier. Therefore, the two conformations of ethane go on changing from one form to another form and consequently, it is not possible to isolate the different conformations of ethane.

the variation of energy versus rotation about the c-c bond has shown in the figure.

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Answer 2

Answer:

Staggered form of ethane is more stable than the eclipsed form because the force of repulsion be-tween hydrogen atoms on adjacent C atom is minimum. The energy difference between the staggered form and the eclipsed form of ethane is just 12.55 KJ

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