Never underestimate how you can learn Organic Chemistry!
Today, my good friends, we will be using the classic game of Battleship to learn some OChem. What specifically will we be working on?
Structural isomers. Oh yes…just wait and see!
Start by laying out your carbons and hydrogens in your molecular formula
We will be using C5H12 as our molecular formula. You always want to find out your degrees of unsaturation (CnH2n+2) before you start.
Here, we do not have any (C5H12). No double bonds and no rings.
How are we going to use this game?
Here is our key:
Red pegs = Hydrogens
White pegs = Carbons
Rows = A, B, C, etc.
Columns = 1, 2, 3, etc.
Start by drawing your longest carbon chain
Start by drawing out your longest carbon chain. In this case, we have a five carbon chain. And it spans E3-E7.
To make is easier, we will remove the red hydrogens. We don’t really need them to figure out the structural isomers.
Next, remove one carbon from the end of your carbon chain
Now that we drew our single 5-carbon chain isomer, it is onto our 4-carbon isomer(s).
Take a carbon from either end and place it on the adjacent carbon. In our case, I took the left carbon from E3 and moved it to D5.
If we had only moved it to D4, I would still have a 5-carbon chain. It would be the same structure.
Do you see that? Great job! Awesome!!
Keep moving that carbon “down the line”
We can see that if we now move the carbon to D6, we get the same structure as before (carbon on D5).
There is a plane of symmetry. So, only one isomer when our longest chain is 4-carbons.
Now…we will remove two carbons
Now…let’s look at the 3-carbon isomer(s).
If we now remove two carbons, we will have a 3-carbon chain from E5 to E7.
The only place to put them? On carbon E6!
Not too bad, right?
All we did was simply break this down into…
5-carbon chains
4-carbon chains
3-carbon chains
You can do this no matter how many carbons you have!
Until next time, keep up your awesomeness!