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| Stereochemistry is a subdiscipline of chemistry that involves the study of the relative spatial arrangement of atoms within molecules. Alkane stereochemistry concerns the stereochemistry of linear alkanes and the linear alkane conformers. Ethane is a classical example to study stereochemistry. Ethane can have two possible conformations, the staggered conformation and the eclipsed conformation. The staggered conformation of ethane is more stable by 12.5 kJ/mol than the eclipsed one. In fact, the staggered conformation corresponds to the energy minimum of alkane and the eclipsed one to the energy maximum. The rotation barrier between the two conformations, known as rotamers, is the energy difference between two conformations. The higher the temperature is, the more easily the rotation barrier can be overcome. |
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