Answer to Question #249573 in Organic Chemistry for Araa

Question

Describe stereochemistry of polysubstitute cycloalkanes ?

Answer 1

Many organic compounds found in nature or created in a laboratory contain rings of carbon atoms with distinguishing chemical properties; these compounds are known as cycloalkanes. Cycloalkanes only contain carbon-hydrogen bonds and carbon-carbon single bonds, but in cycloalkanes, the carbon atoms are joined in a ring. The smallest cycloalkane is cyclopropane.

If you count the carbons and hydrogens, you will see that they no longer fit the general formula

CnH2n+2. By joining the carbon atoms in a ring,two hydrogen atoms have been lost. The general formula for a cycloalkane is CnH2n. Cyclic compounds are not all flat molecules. All of the cycloalkanes, from cyclopentane