User:Bluelucero/Cyclohexane conformation

Coplanar Carbons
Another way to compare the stability within two molecules of cyclohexane in the same conformation is to evaluate the number of coplanar carbons in each molecule. Coplanar carbons are carbons that are all on the same plane. Increasing the number of coplanar carbons increases the number of eclipsing substituents trying to form a 120°, which is unattainable due to the overlapping hydrogens. This overlap increases the overall torsional strain and decreases the stability of the conformation. Cyclohexane diminishes the torsional strain from eclipsing substituents through adopting a conformation with a lower number of nonplanar carbons. For example, if a half-chair conformation contains four coplanar carbons and another half-chair conformation contains five coplanar carbons, the conformation with four coplanar carbons will be more stable.

Solvents
Conformational equilibrium is the tendency to favor the conformation where cyclohexane is the most stable. This equilibrium depends on the interactions between the molecules in the compound and the solvent. Polarity and nonpolarity are the main factors in determining how well a solvent interacts with a compound. Cyclohexane is considered nonpolar, meaning that there is no electronegative difference between its bonds and its overall structure is symmetrical. Due to this, when cyclohexane is immersed in a polar solvent, it will have less solvent distribution, which signifies a poor interaction between the solvent and solute. This produces a limited catalytic effect. Moreover, when cyclohexane comes into contact with a nonpolar solvent, the solvent distribution is much greater, showing a strong interaction between the solvent and solute. This strong interaction yields a heightened catalytic effect.

Practical Applications
Cyclohexane is the most stable of the cycloalkanes, due to the stability of adapting to its chair conformer. This conformer stability allows cyclohexane to be used as a standard in lab analyses. More specifically, cyclohexanes are used as a standard for pharmaceutical reference in solvent analysis of pharmaceutical compounds and raw materials. This specific standard signifies that cyclohexanes are used in quality analysis of food and beverages, pharmaceutical release testing, and pharmaceutical method development ; these various methods test for purity, biosafety, and bioavailability of products. The stability of the chair conformer of cyclohexane gives the cycloalkane a versatile and important application when regarding the safety and properties of pharmaceuticals.

Six hydrogen centers are poised in axial positions, roughly parallel with the C3 axis, a nd six hydrogen atoms are parallel with the equator of the molecule.
In cyclohexane, the two chair conformations have the same energy. The situation becomes more complex with substituted derivatives. In methylcyclohexane the two chair conformers are not isoenergetic. The methyl group prefers the equatorial orientation. The preference of a substituent towards the equatorial conformation is measured in terms of its A value, which is the Gibbs free energy difference between the two chair conformations. A positive A value indicates preference towards the equatorial position. The magnitude of the A values ranges from nearly zero for very small substituents such as deuterium, to about 5 kcal/mol (21 kJ/mol) for very bulky substituents such as the tert-butyl group. Thus, the magnitude of the A value will also correspond to the preference for the equatorial position.

Disubstituted section:

Also, A values are additive for each substituent. For example, if calculating the A value of a dimethylcyclohexane, any methyl group in the axial position contributes 1.70 kcal/mol- this number is specific to methyl groups and is different for each possible substituent. Therefore, the overall A value for the molecule is 1.70 kcal/mol per methyl group in the axial position.

Manipulating Stability

Effects of Substituent Size on Stability

Once again, the conformation and position of groups (ie. substituents) larger than a singular hydrogen are critical to the overall stability of the molecule. The larger the group, the less likely to prefer the axial position on its respective carbon. Maintaining said position with a larger size costs more energy from the molecule as a whole because of steric repulsion between the large groups' nonbonded electron pairs and the electrons of the smaller groups (ie. hydrogens). Such steric repulsions are absent for equatorial groups. The cyclohexane model thus assesses steric size of functional groups on the basis of gauche interactions. The gauche interaction will increase in energy as the size of the substituent involved increases. For example, a t-butyl substituent would sustain a higher energy gauche interaction as compared to a methyl group, and therefore, contribute more to the instability of the molecule as a whole.

In comparison, a staggered conformation is thus preferred; the larger groups would maintain the equatorial position and lower the energy of the entire molecule. This preference for the equatorial position among “bulkier groups” lowers the energy barriers between different conformations of the ring. When the molecule is activated, there will be a loss in entropy due to the stability of the larger substituents. Therefore, the preference of the equatorial positions by large molecules (such as a methyl group) inhibits the reactivity of the molecule and thus makes the molecule more stable as a whole.

Each carbon bears one "up" and one "down" hydrogen. The C–H bonds in successive carbons are thus staggered so that there is little torsional strain. The chair geometry is often preserved when the hydrogen atoms are replaced by halogens or other simple groups. However, when these hydrogens are substituted for a larger group, strain is imposed upon the molecule due to diaxial interactions. This is an interaction (that is usually repulsive) between two substituents in the axial position on a cyclohexane ring.