The discovery of isomerism marked the advent of structural chemistry, where it became significantly important to establish structural formulas, welcome the abundance of structurally diverse compounds, classify them, and study their individual properties and impacts.
Sharing resources is essential to build a harmonious world. When the resources are shared ineffectively conflicts emerges. A similar principle extends to Chemistry.
Atoms are in a state of harmony when the neighbouring atoms shares electrons. When the sharing stops, Chemical reactions triggers.
The imbalance in sharing electrons influences the molecule’s polarity, reactivity, and physical properties. The disagreement on sharing is brought about by electronegativity.
The very premise of a covalent bond is electron sharing. As two atoms share one electron each to form one covalent bond, they may likely share more than once and form more bonds. This information on the number of connections between two atoms is revealed from the Bond Order.
So, the Bond Order measures the number of bonds between the two atoms in a molecule. The number can be integers like 1, 2, or 3 for single, double, or triple bonds or non-integers like 0.5, 1.3, 1.5, etc.
The longest carbon chain is the parent chain containing the principal functional group.
The principle functional group is always given the highest priority, lowest number (1 before 2, 3, 4...), and assigned as a suffix while writing the nomenclature. Therefore, the numbering of the parent chain always starts from the principal functional group.
Keesom Forces | Debye Forces | London Forces |
|---|---|---|
The Keesom interactions occur in polar molecules with permanent dipoles. | Debye type of interactions occurs between the polar and nonpolar molecules. | Nonpolar molecules only interact by the London Forces.
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Following the footsteps of Gilbert N. Lewis in understanding the nature of the covalent bond, Linus N. Pauling stumbled upon an interesting observation. Pauling noticed that the nature of the chemical bond could be explained using a scale or continuum.
Learning Objective: To learn about tautomerism, a subtype of structural isomerism.
Skill Level – Intermediate
Prerequisites:
The atoms that embark on the journey of bond formation are likely to have an electron imbalance. They are less stable and become highly reactive. These atoms seek 8 electrons in their outermost shell to lower their reactivity and achieve stability.
A carbanion is a negatively charged, trivalent carbon ion that acts as a reactive intermediate in many organic reactions.
With three bonds and 8 electrons, carbanions are electron rich and act as a base forming a C-H bond or as a nucleophile forming a C-C bond.