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Monday, August 29, 2016

Organic Chemistry, "Function", Part 7 - The Effect of Isomeric Structure on Boiling Point

Greetings,

Yet another structural effect on properties of alkanes comes about from the differing atomic arrangements of their isomers.  Boiling points are found to be markedly lower for branched alkane structures compared to a more linear arrangement of carbon atoms.  The effect on boiling point occurs because alkane isomers have different overall strengths of London Dispersion Intermolecular forces.  The overall strength of dispersion forces depend on:
(1) degree of steric hindrance &
(2) average distance between molecules.

The following image provides visual demonstrations of the London Force effects.


As indicated in the illustration, boiling point depends on the amount of thermal energy necessary to release molecules to the solvent surroundings.  This, in turn, depends on the overall strength of intermolecular forces present in the solvent.

That's all for this post.  As always, thank you for reading!


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