why cyclobutane molecule is unstable molecule as compared to n butane
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Explanation:
The Carbon atoms in cyclobutane are sp3 hybridised which corresponds to 109.5° bond angle.
But in cyclobutane, the bond angle is around 90° which is less than the ideal angle. This means that the electron clouds surrounding each atom will be considerably closer together than ideal, and since like charges repel, this will be energetically more unfavorable as compared to a straight-chain n-Butane. Hence this causes a strain in the ring and causes unstability in the compound. The unstability caused by this constraint is called Angle strain or Von Baeyer strain.
From experiments, the ring strain comes out to be around 26Kcal/mol for cyclobutane.
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