What is ring strain?

1 Answer
anor277
Jan 17, 2018

As you know, the ideal bond angle in an organic molecule is #109.5^@#....

Explanation:

And of course, this is the ideal tetrahedral bond angle...aliphatic molecules have #/_H-C-H#, #/_H-C-C#, and #/_C-C-C#, etc. #-=# #109.5^@#. When there is #C-C# ring junction, these geometries may become distorted....for cyclohexane, there is little strain, as the ring geometry supports the ideal bond angle.

For #C_3H_6#, #/_C-C-C=60^@# necessarily, and for #C_4H_8#, #/_C-C-C~=90^@#. When these rings are combusted, the enthalpy is elevated with respect to the acyclic olefins, and this is a manifestation of the strain of the ring.

See this site for further details.

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