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Ch.7 - Covalent Bonding and Electron-Dot Structures

Chapter 7, Problem 34

Electrostatic potential maps of acetaldehyde (C2H4), ethane (C2H6), ethanol (C2H6O), and fluorethane (C2H5F) are shown. Which do you think is which? (a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

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Hello everyone today. We have the following problem. The electrostatic potential map below corresponds to either propane. All propane, chloral propane or pro panel. Which one is it? So before we answer that question, let's make note of a few things. So the red area in this map is going to represent the negatively polarized region. So it's very negative and the blue portion is going to be electro positive. So it's going to be the positive region where there is less electro negativity or less electrons. And so since this has only one red electro negative region and the rest is electro positive, we have to look at which one of these structures is going to correlate to that. So if we first look at propane, all pro bono structure is going to be built like. So if we look here, we see that we have an electro negative atom which is oxygen but it's paired with hydrogen and hydrogen is not electro negative. And so it can't be propane all because this far right region is all electro negative. Next. If we examine the structure of propane, propane is simply going to be three carbons connected to one another and those carbons are going to have hydrogen attached to them. And so if we look at this case, there are no electro negative Adams present. So it cannot be propane either next, we can look at the structure of chloral propane And chloral propane is going to be three carbons attached to one chlorine atom. And so if you look at here, we do in fact have an electro negative atom, which is chlorine and it's by itself. So chloral propane is looking very promising right now. But let's run through proper known just to be sure. So we have proper known and its structure is going to be three carbons. But on the second carbon there's going to be an oxygen double bonded to that carbon. And we see here that we have an electro negative atom in oxygen, but it's in the center of the structure. And if you look at our map here, the electro negative item is on the edge of it. So with that being said, this leaves chloral propane to be our most likely structure. And with that we've answered the question overall, I hope that this helped and until next time.