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Cyclohexane is the most stable of the cycloalkanes, due to the stability of adapting to its chair conformer. [4] This conformer stability allows cyclohexane to be used as a standard in lab analyses. More specifically, cyclohexane is used as a standard for pharmaceutical reference in solvent analysis of pharmaceutical compounds and raw materials.
Substituents on a cyclohexane ring prefer to reside in the equatorial position to the axial. The difference in Gibbs free energy (ΔG) between the higher energy conformation (axial substitution) and the lower energy conformation (equatorial substitution) is the A-value for that particular substituent.
The chair conformation minimizes both angle strain and torsional strain by having all carbon-carbon bonds at 110.9° and all hydrogens staggered from one another. [2] The conformational changes that occur in a cyclohexane ring flip take place over several stages. Structure D (10.8 kcal/mol) is the highest energy transition state of the process.
If cyclohexane is mono-substituted with a large substituent, then the substituent will most likely be found attached in an equatorial position, as this is the slightly more stable conformation. Cyclohexane has the lowest angle and torsional strain of all the cycloalkanes; as a result cyclohexane has been deemed a 0 in total ring strain.
The carbons have sp 3 hybridization and should have ideal bond angles of 109.5°. Due to the limitations of cyclic structure, however, the ideal angle is only achieved in a six carbon ring — cyclohexane in chair conformation. For other cycloalkanes, the bond angles deviate from ideal.
The staggered conformation is more stable by 12.5 kJ/mol than the eclipsed conformation, which is the energy maximum for ethane. In the eclipsed conformation the torsional angle is minimised. staggered conformation left, eclipsed conformation right in Newman projection
The anti conformation is more stable by 0.9 kcal mol −1. [1] We would expect that butane is roughly 82% anti and 18% gauche at room temperature. However, there are two possible gauche conformations and only one anti conformation. Therefore, entropy makes a contribution of 0.4 kcal in favor of the gauche conformation. [2]
In addition, cyclohexane conformations can be used to indicate if the molecule has any 1,3 diaxial-interactions which are steric interactions between axial substituents on the 1,3, and 5 carbons. [7] Chair conformation of beta-D-Glucose The cyclohexane conformations in relation to the potential energy at each conformation