Premium
A Dynamic Study of the Stereoisomerization of Pentaphenylethane by Molecular Mechanics Methods
Author(s) -
Bernardinelli Gerald,
Gerdil Raymond
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
helvetica chimica acta
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.74
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1522-2675
pISSN - 0018-019X
DOI - 10.1002/hlca.19810640513
Subject(s) - chemistry , molecular mechanics , maxima and minima , enantiomer , potential energy surface , work (physics) , computational chemistry , molecular dynamics , potential energy , strain energy , force field (fiction) , ground state , crystallography , diffraction , molecule , thermodynamics , stereochemistry , classical mechanics , atomic physics , organic chemistry , quantum mechanics , physics , mathematical analysis , mathematics , finite element method
Two conformations, 1 and 2 , of pentaphenylethane are compared. The ground state conformation 2 results from an earlier computational work by force fields procedures [1], whereas 1 has been more recently observed in the crystalline state by X‐ray diffraction methods. The strain energy of 1 minimizes very close to the value computed for 2 . These conformations belong to two distinct minima of the potential energy surface and are at the most separated by a barrier of about 7 kcal/mol. The pathway converting 1 into its enantiomer is shown to run over a barrier of only 1.5 kcal/mol.